London Film Festival Screening: The American

The American
Starring: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten
Director: Anton Corbijn
Rating: 2 and a half (out of 5)

Summary: An American assassin (Clooney) finds himself holed up in the Italian countryside after his previous assignment in Sweden ends abruptly and violently. Tempted out for a final small assignment by his usual contact, he finds that a hit man can never truly leave his old life without sacrifice...

The American will be a tough sell to a mainstream audience, the morose mood premeating each scene and the languid Italian afternoon tone of Corbijn's direction slowing the film to a snails pace; excitement is few and far between. Imagine Leon the Professional cleaning his window box on a Sunday afternoon and you've pretty much got where the film stands amongst the pantheon of spy thrillers.

Clooney, looking more like Cary Grant with each film that passes, manages to look great in a number of fine cut Italian suits and Prada knitwear but his gloomy and self pitying character Jack (or his alias Edward) stands out like a sore thumb in back water Italy. Whether it's sitting in restaurants, in cafes, picnicking by a beautiful stream and frequently visiting brothels, for someone so paranoid he really is awfully trusting. At least Cary had the good sense to wear sunglasses.

As the film unfolds, Clooney questions his own existence, wakes up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, falls in love with the hooker with the heart of gold and suspects everyone as being a potentially Swedish hitman. As a cold bastard with pangs for a normal life, Clooney really pulls it off, the pain of one too many taken lives etched all over his face - even if he is having a well earned espresso whilst wallowing.

Director Anton Corbijn, ex music video director extraordinaire and the vision behind Joy Division biopic Control, decides to take time off from his rock 'n' roll sensibilities to show as much dramatic tension on screen as a Daniel O' Donnell production. This isn't so much of a problem when surveying the beautiful surroundings like a postcard but when he attempts to imitate The Third Man by filming the dangerous cobbled, back streets it's as blunt in it's execution as attempting assassination with a butter knife. Corbijn's mishandling of the piece is a big problem with The American - It's too Hollywood, it's too slick and for most of the film it's simply chocolate box paranoia.

Over the course of 105 minutes The American becomes an indifferent watch. It has no heart and to coin a cliche (which this film revels in by the way, kindly old Italian priests?) it has no soul. I've heard of a slow burner but this never even lights.

The American is showing as part of the "Film on the Square" season at the London Film Festival
It is on general release in the UK from 26th November

Never hitting the Mile High Club

Up in the Air
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
Director: Jason Reitman
Rating: ** (out of 5)

Summary: Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) flies from city to city being the bearer of bad news. Hired by companies to fire their employees, he's close to acquiring 10 million airmiles and becoming part of an exclusive club. However, his perfect lifestyle comes under threat when his company plan to ground him and turn his role into a desk job...

Jason Reitman's follow up to Juno is missing the one thing that movie had: Soul.

The characters in Up in the Air are unlikeable, cynical arseholes for the majority of the time - even more so than I am. It's like spending two hours with Jason Bateman's Juno character whilst he tells you how awful his life is and lights Cuban cigars with £50 notes, all the while picking his teeth with a passport photo of his beautiful wife. In summary, bloody irritating.

Up in the Air seems to have attracted critical acclaim because of its timely unemployment subject matter and George Clooney's apparently revelatory performance. However, one of those can be seen as a pure plot device and coincidence whilst the other can be seen as pure, Hollywood bullshit churned out by the hypemill 3000 (Acme patent pending). Clooney is simply Clooney, nothing more and nothing less. Holding back on the Just for Men for a month or two and attempting to cry whilst looking like the before subject in a laxative ad does not make you Oscar worthy. Clooney is not a bad actor, but he is simply coasting in this movie, and is not pushed like David O Russell pushed him in Three Kings for example - which is still his best performance in my opinion.

The plus points, which are few and far between, are the two female leads, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. Despite the fact that Reitman and Turner's script paints them as a cliched cold femme fatale and a weak and neurotic damsel in distress, they give honest performances, filling out underwritten support roles with gusto.

The movie was a disappointment, unsure of itself and guided by a main protagonist who, despite the amount of soul searching and puppy dog looks, deserves a happy ending about as much as Hitler in Triumph of the Will. Jason Reitman and George Clooney can and must do better.