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David Perilli enjoys this offbeat thriller from Anton Corbijn (Control) that sees Clooney play a cold-blooded killer holed up in an Italian hilltop town for one last job.

From the poster to the snazzy European locations to the Hollywood star, The American harks back to the passport-waving breed of thrillers made in the 1970s like The Day of the Jackal.

Adapted from a novel by Martin Booth, George Clooney plays the dead-eyed assassin holing up in a hilltop Italian town for the inevitable final job. During his stay he makes friends with the local padre and starts an affair with an implausibly gorgeous prostitute. Naturally his bloody past follows him.

Anton Corbijn’s second feature – after the striking Joy Division biopic Control – sloshes on the gorgeous postcard visuals as it muzzles Clooney’s legendary charm. The effect being that a merest hint of a smile convinces you that anything is possible for this seemingly marked man.

Compared to, say, the relentless pace of the Bourne films there’s power here similar to the repose found in In Bruges. Cascading in tension The American crackles like a thunderstorm by the finale suggesting that there’s still room for a great thriller that takes time to think before it pulls the trigger.

 

David Perilli on 21st February 2011
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