The American

Private American – An Excellent Movie Going Experience
The American, R, *****Plus, George Clooney, Johan Leysen, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli, Reuten Mathide, Irina Bjorklund in a Focus Features Film. Director Anton Corbijn. Length 95 minutes.

Many of the movies today contain gratuitous violence for practically the entire movie. Audiences are addicted to mindless violence and over the top action scenes. It appears that they must be fed action scenes in order to enjoy the movie.
Finally, an intelligent film arrives at the local theaters with great performances, excellent story, and outstanding photography. It is my hope that audiences will embrace this film with intelligence and depth.
It is a psychological study of an assassin who wants to quit after a bad experience in Sweden. He has basically had enough of his chosen profession that is full of violence.
Of course he has to be a very private person in order to survive. Has he lost his edge?
After the unfortunate episode in Sweden Jack (George Clooney), must become a chameleon because several people are out to kill him. Jack’s contact and boss in this unusual business is Pavel (Johan Leysen). Pavel tells Jack to lay low in a certain Italian town for a while until he can sort things out. Jack decides on a neighboring village to hang his hat.
There he meets Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli). They begin to communicate and discuss life. Father Benedetto wants Jack to confess, because he realizes he is unhappy about something.
The psychological trauma in this film gives it depth and strength. It is a story told through expressions, eye contact, and body language. The film is George Clooney’s best performance since the outstanding film “Michael Clayton.”
The audience sees an actor totally becoming his character. Sometimes it is best for a story to reveal itself through less dialogue. Leaving some things unsaid gives the film a strong look at the European style of film making. It is not necessary to spoon feed the audience with every small detail. Through observation, the audience learns a lot.
The viewer can determine the mood of the characters and the story through great acting without very much dialogue. In other words it had just the right amount of dialogue to deliver a superb film for audiences to enjoy.
In the village Jack meets Clara (Violante Placido) a “lady of the night.” They begin a relationship, and Jack becomes emotionally involved with her.
Jack receives another assignment. Since Jack is a superb craftsman, his job is to build a rifle for another hit person. Her name is Mathilde (Thekia Reuten).
Watching Jack build the weapon with parts from a local car mechanic shows more of the acting and preciseness that Jack uses in his chosen trade. Whether he is building a weapon or tracking his prey, he has the necessary skills to complete the task.
Precision, timing, and patience all merge to bring suspense to the film. As the famous quote “A picture says a thousand words,” it is obvious the audience learns a lot through this visual film experience. The director, Anton Corbijn, is a photographer. His sense of visual story telling is a work of art. The scenery of Italy is stunning with shots of the village, countryside, and a wooded area next to a river. The local color is captured through the lens of Corbijn, and the depths of the characters are revealed. The acting and photography gives life to this outstanding film.
Watch for symbols. A hawk circling the town looking for its prey, a dark tunnel with the light approaching as a car travels closer to the exit, and an endangered butterfly in a private wooded area near a river where Jack spends time working on his craft.
The action in this excellent film is real, and the characters are believable. Watch an intelligent film without having to be bombarded with unnecessary dialogue and CGI graphics. See realistic suspense and apprehension for a refreshing change.
The film is based on the novel, A Very Private Gentleman, by Martin Booth.