George Clooney as a Very Bad Man Contemplating Redemption
If you enjoy spaghetti Westerns, old samurai movies and European art-house films, you'll want to see The American (2010). This is a deliberately paced English-language movie with sparse dialogue and one beautifully composed shot after another. The film is mostly quiet and meditative, but there are bursts of violence in which eight characters die.
George Clooney plays the title character, a middle-aged man who sometimes goes by Jack Clarke, probably an assumed name. At film's beginning, Jack is enjoying a holiday with his lover Ingrid in a remote cabin in Sweden when an attempt on his life results in three people being shot to death. He flees and ends up hiding out in the picturesque Italian mountain town of Castel del Monte. While there, he is shown transforming a Ruger Mini-14 into a sniper's gun for a mysterious, good-looking woman (Thekla Reuten).
An elderly priest (Paolo Bonacelli) befriends Jack and urges him to seek absolution. Meanwhile, Jack begins patronizing a pretty prostitute (Violante Placido) and soon starts to fall for her. During his sojourn in Castel del Monte, he slowly comes around to the idea that he wants to change his life, but doing so will require him to navigate waters that are tricky and dangerous.
The American is a not a film for everyone. The plot is wispy and rather similar to that of other movies. The central character's backstory remains unrevealed, and it is difficult for viewers to fathom what he is thinking. But the film is atmospheric and causes the receptive viewer to ponder the issue of redemption.
Bonus Materials
The DVD containing The American provides two video extras, and they are worth watching if you liked the feature film. In the 11-minute "Journey to Redemption: The Making of The American," you can hear from cast and crew about location shooting in the mountains of the Abruzzo region of Italy. There are also five deleted scenes with a total runtime of about 5 1/2 minutes. In one of these, Jack views a depiction of the Ninth Station of the Cross and talks about it with the priest.
Also on the DVD is a feature-length audio commentary by director Anton Corbijn. There's more detail here than most viewers are likely to want to know, but he does make a few interesting remarks along the way. For example, he says that the butterfly is the symbol of Jack's metamorphosis and that the movie on the TV in the bar is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.
DVD Release Date: December 28, 2010
Total Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Violence, Sexual Content and Nudity