The American (2010)

Violante Placido and George Clooney

This film is pretty dull, Apart from an unexpected killing early on and some killings at the end to wrap things up and a the compulsory sex scene in the middle nothing much happens. Isn't that enough you may ask? You would probably think so. The thing is, the story is about an assassin so you expect a bit of hide and seek and chase and killing, So when it happens you expect it. But what doesn't happen is a development of the characters so that you at least start to care a little bit. Furthermore there is no real expose of the organization the character is involved with. So in the end we are left with is largely a comic strip story with barely a script to fill a page. Maybe they paid Clooney so much money they didn't have any left to pay for a script writer. Scene after scene is filled with pensive angles on Clooney's many faceted face and long shots of the Italian village on the mount, which I suppose is quite nice. There are also detailed discussions on the customised specifications of the firearm being ordered and scenes of Clooney building it. Yawn. The highlight for me was     Violante Placido who could rival Sophia Loren in looks when she takes the stage for a short spell. But of course Sophia never lent her self naked for the screen and that sex scene was so long it bordered on soft porn. Competition must be tougher these days. On the whole, I'd say mostly eye-candy for women.