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Friday
13Feb2009

Movie Review - 'The International'

DateFriday, February 13, 2009 at 12:52AM
The International

Starring Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, and Armin Mueller-Stahl
Directed by Tom Tykwer
Rated R

theinternational_galleryposter.jpg With all the Wall Street greed in the news, you'd think The International was taking its lead from current events. Not exactly. The film was shot almost a year-and-a-half ago, before this economic Titanic charted its course, and the script is at least six years old.

But director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) doesn't have to work very hard to get you to choose sides because of the banking crisis, which is a plus once the movie starts. The problem is whether or not people want to escape their real world for two hours to see evil bankers.

Interpol agent Louis Sallinger (Clive Owen) has been working with the Manhattan District Attorney's office, and in particular ADA Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), on an investigation of global consequence. Sallinger believes one of the world's largest banks is killing opponents of its lending practices. But why?

It has to do with buying cheap weapons from China and giving them to third world countries. How can the bank make money out of this? That's not the goal, we learn. Instead, the bank is assuring debtors. "Control the debt and you control everything," an insider tells Sallinger and Whitmore. And it's very tough to track where the money goes if there's not a trail of money to follow.

The information alone isn't enough to win the day for Interpol. Because most of the first world countries do enormous amounts of business with the bank, too, protecting it protects their own interests, so bringing down The Internatioal Bank of Business and Credit means, in essence, bringing down the governments of the world.

Action movies like this can be a lot of fun. Witness anything Jason Bourne, where even though the stakes are high, it's the stunts that really move us from place to place. The International isn't fun. It's dour. It's also smarter than a lot of Hollywood movies, even serious ones, and by and large, that serves the film well.

There are a couple of minor issues, like the plotting, which never felt right. To get technical, it seemed as though the second act went for about fifteen minutes after we thought it ended. That makes a two hour movie feel a lot longer.

Another unsatisfying component is in Eric Singer's script, which is otherwise quite good. Anytime there's a big moment, where a crucial decision has to be made by Owen, Watts, or the great Armin-Mueller Stahl (who plays one of the higher-ups at the bank), The International is armed and ready with sage advice that the character uses to pepper his or her speech.

"That's the difference between truth and fiction - fiction has to make sense," or "Some bridges you cross, others you burn. I'm the one you burn." Real people don't talk like that unless they've written it down first. There are about six of these scattered throughout the film, as if Singer's trying his luck at esoteric bumper stickers on the side.

Outside of those two fairly minor issues, knock yourself out. There's a fantastic action sequence in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, a building so iconoclastic it can't even be mistaken for other Guggenheim Museums in the world. It's a set piece lifted from North by Northwest, and while it goes on way too long, it's nonetheless the most interesting visual in the film.

Owen has mastered the unkempt everyman. We never know all of his secrets, but we know he's got a lot of them. And this is truly his film. I just wish it had been a little better.


Watch the International trailer

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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