A movie review: The American (2010)

The American is a thriller film starring George Clooney. The movie is Anton Corbijn's second full-length film (the first one was Control from 2007). Corbijn has been previously known mainly from music-related films like music videos for Metallica and U2. The American is best known for its beautiful filming locations and for the women that Clooney deals with. Generally, the movie is pretty dark and especially Clooney doesn't smile too often. On the other hand, the makers of The American has found many beautiful, but less known female actors from Europe. One of those is Finnish actor Irina Björklund, who got a role that lasts just few minutes (but that's still remarkable). The budget of The American was 20 million dollars and it has gathered almost 65 million dollars by the gross revenue.

Filming of The American took place mainly in a small town in Italy. This way the movie portrays also Italian lifestyle. The main thing is, however, how Clooney acts as "Jack", who is an aged assassin. Jack has been thinking of quitting the job because of getting some traumatic experiences and he also wants to "settle down". In a leading role, Clooney is classy and performs solid acting. Despite that, this film may just show how acting has become a little too routined for Clooney. Women, who are crowding around Clooney are stunningly beautiful, but they're good actors also. The movie left a feeling, that it's been made with style and good taste.

Overall, I thought the movie was well executed and good acting covered some of the small problems I had with the script. In my papers, this film may be an underdog when talking about the best movies of the year. It's also worth mentioning, that Björklund does a good job and she stands out in spite of her small role. I give 8/10 stars for this.

The American in IMDb (User rating 6,6)