The American
2010
**
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Björklund, Johan Leysen
Anton Corbijn's follow-up to Control is a visually stylish but lifeless Euro-thriller which bears a strong Western influence. George Clooney plays an American hitman/gunsmith who flees for his life to a remote Italian village. There he agrees to build one more rifle, but can he still trust someone? The uneventful story, which was adapted from Martin Booth's 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman, drudges along at snail pace to its predictably flat conclusion. However, the main problem is the stony-faced and monosyllabic hero who never gives me any reason to care about his existential crisis.
