This past Sunday at the Emmy Awards, George Clooney made a surprise appearance in one of the videos. It was a very funny moment in the show, and an unexpected one as well since George Clooney hasn’t been on TV since his returning spot on the last season of E.R. The best guess as to why he did this was to raise awareness for his new movie, “The American”.
Clooney plays The American (he goes by different names in the movie). He’s some sort of an American operative hiding out in Italy (he may be an assassin or an arms maker, that’s never made clear either). He gets one more assignment while he is hiding out, and falls for a local prostitute while he is there.
It’s hard to imagine this movie getting made without George Clooney in the starring role. He is a producer on the project, which is as good an explanation as any on how it got made. The movie has a real independent feel to it. There are a lot of short scenes where nothing much happens. Clooney is in a local café getting a drink, the scene lasts for maybe 20-seconds, and it’s on to the next scene. Does the scene drive the story forward? Is it there to show some character development? If so, director Anton Corbijn never makes it clear or just doesn’t know how. Aside from the biography film, “Control” this is his only other feature. All his other work has been in music videos, which can also explain the quickly cut scenes.
The movie is based on the novel, “A Very Private Gentleman” by the late Martin Booth. The suspense that was supposed to be brought over is hardly ever felt here until the very end. Before that, it’s just Clooney up on the screen doing one small thing after another. His “mission” is almost given as much importance as his dinner with a local priest (Paolo Bonacelli). Again, maybe this is intentional. This makes the movie intriguing, yet boring at the same time. Besides Bonacelli, Clooney is surrounded by a good supporting cast. Clooney's female fans may have a better time. Some of those short scenes are of him doing pull-ups without his shirt.
Labor Day weekend means the end of the summer movie season. You don’t often see a movie trying to get a jump on that weekend by opening on Wednesday; but, that’s what “The American” has decided to do. Whether it will generate much word of mouth before the weekend gets underway is yet to be seen. A hurricane may be around South Florida this weekend, so it may not matter much anyway. The movie is rated R- for violence, sexual content and nudity.
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