The American is a movie that time forgot. It is a lot like one of those slowly paced, Italian movies from the 70’s and that element makes it cool, but it also makes it a difficult movie to pull off. It’s about 80 percent there.
George Clooney plays a hitman who specializes in building weapons for assassinations. For some reason, a bunch of Swedes want him dead. This movie is VERY light on plot. Long story short, he ends up in Rome hiding out, while simultaneously doing a job and avoiding the Swedes. Sounds exciting, but it’s slow as Hell.
That wasn’t my problem with it. The movie from the get-go establishes a leisurely pace and the cast, for the most part, is engaging to watch, even when they just sit around and drink. The problem is the assassin that hires Clooney to make her gun. She’s way too hot for the role. The rest of the movie is gritty and feels real, but she sticks out as badly as if you had dropped Moltov Cocktease from the Venture Brothers in the middle of it.
Another problem is, the movie is supposed to be about big things. Life, death, love, etc. Unfortunately, Clooney’s actual work details are so light and there are so few characters, when the “betrayal” happens, it doesn’t feel real. It feels like the director and/or screenwriter didn’t have enough characters to have anyone else try to kill him at the end.
So if you’re a film buff and you like 70’s dramas, you’ll appreciate it like I did, but it’s unlikely you’ll be blown away. This is definitely a rental. I give it a 4 out of 10 keggers. If you do go see it, just understand it’s very slow and don’t expect lots of explosions.
