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Capone finds great power in George Clooney's portrait of a brutal assassin in THE AMERICAN!!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
You're going to hear a lot of people (critics, in particular) agree that THE AMERICAN feels retro or has a certain European wire running through its core, and I can see that and maybe even agree with the latter assessment. But what the only 2010 offering from actor George Clooney (after three films out last year) really has is a level of sophistication and understated menace that sets it apart from perhaps every other films about a professional assassin ever made. With guidance from the great photographer/music video maker, CONTROL director Anton Corbijn, THE AMERICAN takes us inside the mind of a man who can kill for a living and lets us examine not only what makes him good at his job, but also how those very elements are the ones eating away at his soul and slowly consuming any remaining thing about him that is good.
With sparse dialogue and a camera that moves slow and steady, the film begins in a snow-swept, faraway woodland in Sweden. A slender handsome man with a salt-and-pepper beard is enjoying the company of a lovely woman in a cabin. The two go for a walk in the drifts when she spots another set of footprints in the snow. The man reacts instantaneously by running for cover just as bullets whiz by his head and explode the bark inches from his face. With defense and survival mechanism all activated, the man deals with the situation in a matter of minutes, and when he's finished, his peaceful life is shattered.
The wonderful thing about THE AMERICAN (one of many, actually) is that screenwriter Rowan Joffe (adapting the book "A Very Private Gentleman" by Martin Booth) doesn't bog us down with background. Do we really need to know how long this killer who sometimes calls himself Jack, sometimes Edward has been at the game? Can't we look at his tired face that almost never cracks a smile to be fairly certain that the answer is "Too long"? Clooney knows he has a gift for delivering crack dialogue with more charm and poise than any other human being on the planet, so it stands to reason that the gifted actor in him would want to see if he can be as convincing playing someone who rarely speaks. And he handles the task so well that you find yourself analyzing every word out of his mouth for deeper meaning. By getting so little information about this man, director Corbijn forces us to pay attention, look for signs and clues, watch his reactions. When Jack tells a prostitute that she doesn't have to pretend to enjoy sex with him because "I'm here to get pleasure, not give it," it's a startling moment of coldness and forces us to wonder just a little bit more than we already did, Who is this guy?
While Jack's handler (Bruce Altman) look into who is trying to kill him, Jack is relocated to a small Italian town where he is asked to assemble a special weapon for another killer, a Belgian woman named Mathilde (Thekla Reuten, who, in a nice touch, has a different hairstyle and color each time we see her). And as he did in Sweden, Jack meets the stunning Clara (the aforementioned prostitute) and tries unsuccessfully not to have feelings for her. His other challenge is to not be paranoid that she or anyone else he comes into contact with in this place is part of the conspiracy to take him out. Another member of the cast is Paolo Bonacelli as Father Benedetto, who takes Jack under his wing. The idea of a killer and a priest matching wits and philosophies on life, sin, and redemption might be a touch on the obvious side, but Italian acting legend Bonacelli is so enjoyable in this role, we can't help but forgive. The two test out their powers of observation on each other in unexpected ways, and their scenes together are some of my favorite.
For Jack, falling in love for Jack is an act of desperation, a last-ditch effort to hold onto what remains of his shriveling heart. And I can see what he chose Mathilde to be his savior. She's almost too good to be true (if you ignore that whole prostitute gig), and Corbijn relishes in showing off every inch of her natural, curvy frame. Considering Clooney has, for the most part, shied away from more explicit sexual exploits on screen, it's strange to see him so free with his and others' bodies in something like UP IN THE AIR or THE AMERICAN. I'll admit, it's good to know the old guy's still got it.
You may be confused with my review because the trailers and commercials you've seen for THE AMERICAN have centered on gunplay and what appear to be action scenes, and those things do exist in this movie, but to such a small degree, you almost get angry when they arrive and interrupt the far more interesting things going on during the quieter moments. I think it's safe to say that Clooney has worked his way into yet another high point in his career (that I'd say started with 2007's MICHAEL CLAYTON) in the last couple of years, and THE AMERICAN might be the best of the bunch since that film. At the very least, this character represents a path that Clooney has never really gone down before. His performance demands a level and type of attention that I'm not used to extended to an actor who is usually pretty easy to read and relies on a familiar library of expressions and other acting tools to make his point. But here, he's making us do much of the work while his character goes out of his way to hide his feelings from those in his life and us. It's a role I want to revisit soon, to look for more signs in the lines in his face. It's a strange game I'm not used to playing with Clooney, but I dig it--and this film--tremendously.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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Every negative review claims it's "too slow". Like that's a bad thing.
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Um..... okay? I don't like Clooney anyway so I doubt I'll be seeing it. It also sounds like he sports a pokerface throughout, which is kinda what he always does. And he's played CIA type guys before and killers so I'm not getting what's really new here.
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I will definitely be hitting the cinema for this.
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I saw the first trailer, and it was very quiet, moody, and beautiful, which caught my interest. Then the second trailer came out, filled with bland action, and I immediately lost interest. It's nice to know that this movie will center around the motivations and inner workings of a man, rather than the cliche and rather boring gunplay scenes that so many movies seem forced to rely on.
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growup.com
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When anyone plays against type, I'm in the queue.
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assassin from other countries: The Mexican. The Liechtensteiner. Canadian Ninja...
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Please.
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remember when he did batman and robin? at least it was different.
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not scarlett
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and just retire
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This character sounds a little like his character in Michael Clayton. I'm not sure it's exactly against type, but I'm intrigued.
I think the title of the book, "A Very Private Gentleman" is better than "The American," though. -
The trailers don't show a single original looking element, or even much of a story. I guess they just assume "George Clooney is an assassin" is enough to get asses in the seats, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this one tank based solely off the cold, disinterested ad campaign.
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I can't quite figure out how Clooney managed to get an Oscar nom for the oh so dull Up in the Air?
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he'll say it's "another Clooney flop"yeah, he's not too bright.
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...George Clooney now seems to be making a career playing the world-weary expert hungry for redemption/deeper meaning...
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Pretty good line right there.
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years later, and we're still having the same argument that smart and interesting can equal popular. forget the trailers, if the movie is good, people will seek it out. and it can't have cost that much, since I'm sure Clooney slighted his usual payment. every review thus far has been unequivocally great. can't you be hopeful for anything anymore, even if liberals are involved?
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15 mill worldwife. Anything can.
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I have enjoyed the last few movies Clooney has done, so count me in for this one.
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I love you, brother, and I respect you position as the king of trolls...but if you're going to be a successful troll, you can't distort facts.
Kick Ass made close to $100 million worldwide. it wasn't a huge hit, but it wasn't a flop either. pick your troll battles, my friend. good luck, see you on the next one!
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Control was quite the masterpiece. After that, I'd watch pretty much anything Anton Corbijn was involved in..
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"it wasn't a huge hit" - thanks for proving my point douche nozzle.
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I'll be there. Thanks for the write-up.
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and that's my problem, not yours, Capone. I'll more than skim this gladly after I see it!!
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Sep 01, 2010 3:15:08 AM CDT
CAPONE-Aren't you mad it wasn't post-prod. converted to 3D???
by jonchambers
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George Clooney is my boy and he can do no wrong at this stage. I fuckin' love that guy.
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Sep 01, 2010 3:18:47 AM CDT
Isn't there a scene where Clooney says, "Let loose the kraken!"?
by jonchambers
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Could anyone point me on the direction of some cheap knock off Prada clobber?. Also rplocke give it a rest eh.
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Clooney just seems to get better with age, I am now interested in this film. Thanks as always Capone Heeeey LOCKE Boy!!! Read BadMrWonka's post again! As usual you missed the important part. Don't ever change though, you getting owned almost everytime you post (I'm being kind with the almost) NEVER gets tired for me :D
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How about giving us an assassin who loves his job? An assassin with 5 gold stars on his assassin name badge? Assassin employee of the motherfucking month!!!
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by Brust. He is an assassin who loves his job, n'est-ce pas?
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He gives us a snippet, tantalising us with 'facts' but in reality he is simply using anything out of context in the hope that some of it may pass as original thought. The perfect example of his extreme ability to bullshit lies above with his extraction of one half of a sentence, ignoring that the second part even exists and using it as proof that someone's own words have betrayed them. Fuckin Fox News style 'facts'... Fuck you RP, Fuck you very much...
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... a long time ago with SOLARIS and his own directed movie CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND.
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What exactly does that mean? I assume its a mark of quality and not overly sentimental US film making.
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I was reminded of the MST3K treatment of Batman and Robin, where they mutter "headbob" each time Clooney jerked his head throughout every scene. He's cleansed himself of this acting tic.
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It's one of the top best film portait of a troubled artist i ever seen. Done wth great integrity, dramatic without being melodramatic. Watching the movie you could feel you were watching a slice of life or a real living person, and a portait of the times when and where Ian Curtis lived. The movie didn't shy away from Curtis's worst aspects of his personality, but it also made him very sympathetic and you can't help but emphatise and sympathise with him and follow in his troubled feelings and emotions.Thus i can't wait to see the director's next move, this THE AMERICAN. Anton Corbijn is the real deal.
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I just want you guys to all get a basic comp class under your belts.
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Inded. At the begining Clooney irritated me because of hos bobble head tick. He just plain irritated me, everytime i saw him onscreen. And then his career took a U-turn after the Batman and Robin disaster, and since i have became a fan. The man is now quality.
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Give it a view. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel, directed by Steven Soderberg, cast includes: J Lo, Ving Rhames, Dennis Farina, Luis Guzman. Just an excellent combination of comedy, romance and crime thriller. Makes for a good date movie too.
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It means exactly that, friend. The deliberate avoidance of melodramatic cliches and a willingless to not do cheap audience manipulation tricks but instead let the story enthrall the viewers for it's own merits. Basically, it's filmmaking without the usual Hollywood bullshit. Guess which movie i would use as an example for the later case. Thing is, Hollywood used to make movies like this too, back in the great era of cinema that was the 70s. Before shit got dumbed in the fucking 80s.
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Indeed. That mvoie was the one where Clooney started his cleasing act from washing away his filmic sins which reached it's zenith in Batman And Robin. It was the start of great things to come.
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That Clooney career peak started with directing (and co-starring) in the fantastic Good Night, and Good Luck in '05. Good German was a disaster, but he won his Academy Award for Syriana.
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i guess the movie has a limited appeal instead of a very borad one, but it's a damn fine movie on it's own right, besides the obvious stylizations.
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. . . unless its the Coen Bros. directing him, he'll always just be playing George Clooney. He's like a likeable, cool Michael Cera.
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LOVE Out of Sight. Made me think J.Lo was going somewhere good at the time. But Clooney just plays Clooney . . .
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reminds me of the "I'm very selfish with my pleasure" line George Lucas wrote for Han (that Kasdan eventually rewrote).
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Thats what I thought. I shall go and see this then.
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The Matador, You Kill Me, and even Bangkok Dangerous, plus dozens of DTV movies--a few of them unsung gems--cover the same ground. A burned out hitman is hardly fertile territory.
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Sep 01, 2010 8:41:52 AM CDT
RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES IS CLOONEY'S BEST MOVIE!!!FACT!!!
by creationisttechnophobicmaniacs
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Forget revamping the site. Please, for the love of God, just focus on basic grammar.
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Been looking forward to this since I saw the first trailer. Looks great and this great review gives me even more hope for this being an awesome film.
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It's kinda funny how this misconception spreads. You always hear Americans saying how good foreign films are and how they avoid Hollywood cliches etc. It's because only the best non-American films get picked up for distribution in America. Other countries have their share of garbage, it just doesn't make it to the USA. Every country produces witless lowbrow comedies and formula trash action features, but most of them just stay in their homelands.I'm sure if the same scrutiny was exacted on Hollywood films and only the top 10% got released, people would think Hollywood was great too.
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Forget it g0dai--it's the internet, fighting for decent grammar is a lost cause. The worst thing about bad grammar is that it seems to be spreading outside of the internet realm too; I taught a class of 5th graders, and one kid handed me his report that was written in AIM speak--you know, filled with abbreviations like ppl and other cringe-inducing grammatical and spelling errors. Good grammar is long gone, my friend. Long gone.
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Simply a modern classic. Not to mention it has Micheal Keaton playing the same role in Jackie Brown...
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Sep 01, 2010 10:12:22 AM CDT
okay, that was terribly written....wrote...
by nomoredirtyjokespleaseweareyanks
ah fuck it I'm drunk... What's Harry's excuse. Y'know lately when I picture Harry, I always picture Hedonism-bot except instead of grapes he's eating aborted foetuses.....
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a Oceans movie or From Dusk til Dawn, i dont care about Clooney in a starring role
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COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!!!
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Sep 01, 2010 10:55:28 AM CDT
yourSTEPDADDY... Gecko is coolness personified...
by nomoredirtyjokespleaseweareyanks
but if you like him there ya gotta love Out of Sight. It's the Smooooooth version...
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The good thing about you guys in USA is that you get the best foreign stuff there. The bad thing about us foreigners is that we constantly get the shit made in USA, which most would call "Hollywood at it's usual business". You guys actually have it better.
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"I'm sure if the same scrutiny was exacted on Hollywood films and only the top 10% got released, people would think Hollywood was great too."That would be a dream. But it also mean that in some years, like 2009, no movie would come out of Hollywood's studios, except the Miramax/Paramount Vintage type stuff. Which would had been a blessing.
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That would mean that none of the Mickey Bay movies would had ever been released outside USA. That would had been beyond awesome! Heaven is made of such blessings.
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I can't wait to see this, Clooney's my favorite working actor out there. The dude reminds me of Cary Grant.
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Sep 01, 2010 12:08:56 PM CDT
I'm seeing this today. Glad the trailer didn't show much
by spectrebeeyatch
Seeing people complain how the trailer didn't give a lot of the story. Um thank you! Tired of trailers showing the entire movie. Oh to the nasty TBers on here, when you try and bash a movie you obviously didn't see, please at least try and not use BO numbers. Most of the time you guys just make up numbers "Kick Ass made about 15 million worldwife" first nice spelling on worldwide ass hole and secondly it made a lot more. Some of you use BO numbers to try and prove something. It never works. Either you get the number wrong and the BO numbers don't mean shit. They just don't. Also tired of people adding "advertising costs" you people don't know shit about the business so stop talking numbers and talk about the movies themselves. Rant over. The American looks cool.
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Michael Clayton and Up In The Air are among my favourite films of the last few years.
UITA is an interesting case, though...seems to have divided people quite sharply. I suspect that unless you're at least 35 and have moved around quite a bit in your life, its most important themes simply won't resonate with you. -
... that if he's in a movie, i have a good reason to believe the movie is good.
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"You always hear Americans saying how good foreign films are and how they avoid Hollywood cliches etc. "
Also, most people cannot distinguish between good performances and bad performances in a foreign language (sometimes even in a different accent) and tend to err on the side of generosity. (Can you tell whether an actor in an Iranian movie is giving a realistic performance when he waves his hands around wildly and shouts in a loud monotone?) -
"forget the trailers, if the movie is good, people will seek it out."
Just ask Scott Pilgrim. All I said is that they aren't going to hook anyone into seeing it based off the terribly dull trailers. What's the controversy? -
I ca tell when an actor in a foreing language is doing a good performance because i see it all the time, because all movies i see are foreign for me. The accent thing, though, is a good point. I never know if an actor is delivering an accurate irish or scotish accent or not, for example.
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No it didn't. It barely broke even. It wasn't a hit outside of sites like this.
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and I gots Seth comin out on top, cockin his side slightly to the right...man, Clooney was so cool in the 90s
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dont run up steps with guns, kids
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After that, his filmmaking became very self-assured, and he never looked back.
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never knew of her until then... now i watch any new vid of hers that pops up on spankwire... one time, she swallowed cum out of a girls ass as she squeezed it out...such a freak
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Sep 01, 2010 4:41:46 PM CDT
Sorry Capone, is Clara the prostitute / love interest, or Mathil
by greatwhitenoise
You mention Mathilde in that context in the second-to-last paragraph, but I think you mean Clara. Could you... Clara-fy? Thx.
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Harry could take a lesson. Plot outline without unnecessary spoilers. Good analysis of what the movie is, rather than a rant about whether it lived up to Harry's hype.
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Man, i really love that movie. Truly remarkable.
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He plays himself every movie. All he does is spit out the lines in the same monotone manner every film. This is a pass for me and it will be a box office dud.
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you're jsut doing what you always seem to do, and confusing your opinion with fact. I saw the same trailers that you did, and I was immediately hooked and interested. if the trailers were "boring" to you, that doesn't make them boring, that just makes them "boring to you". this movie was made on a pretty tight budget, and it will do quite nicely for itself, and make a nice little profit. losing your $10 dollars won't make it a flop, surprisingly enough.
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Got me interested in this film. Very good pacing and composition by the director. The poster is also one of the best in recent years.
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damnyoumichelbay.com
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Control was a fuckin' masterpiece
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rad movie. hope everyone here checks it out.
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I love the hitman action subgenre, and after reading Capone's review, I looked forward to watching it last night, but as soon as The American faded to black, I felt disappointment set in. I don't mind a slow pace as long as the story stays fresh and keeps me guessing. I saw every 'twist' coming as soon as the writer dropped the nuggets. Granted, they weren't hard to find since damn near nothing happens for 2 hours, but still. Keep the viewer guessing. Yes. Clooney was great, but the movie would've been atleast good if it had more than Clooney's dark side to showcase.
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