Aha, the “Hollywood Factory” is moving around interior, so last week we saw only half of the new releases. Not that I found “Machete” this time (it will only arrive in the coming week), but “The American” would have been a descent alternative last week. Corbijn’s second is completely different from his biography of Ian Curtis. George Clooney is “the American” arms dealer ending up in rural Italy were he comes to reconsider his carreer. For one time Clooney does not use his charms in a romcom or screwball, but he plays a ruthless man, self-preservation being his primery goal. Not that “The American” is a shootout action film, not at all in fact. “The American” is a very slow and minimalistic film with beautiful images (but what do you expect from a photographer as director?) with but little conversations, showing Clooney as a lonesome man. The slow pace makes the few action scenes come in harder, especially because Clooney, who does manage to raise the sympathy of the viewer, remains icecold, or does he? “The American” is a nice film with a descent atmosphere. Reading back my review of “Control” I think I find “The American” better, but neither film of Corbijn is a masterpiece.
