The American

I've been away for a while at a month-long meditation retreat, so I may have missed some films during August and early September, but now it's the Atlantic Film Festival season as well as the start of the Fall/Winter generally more interesting films time of year, so you may be hearing from me more often. I went to see The American after having heard that a few people I know really disliked it. But the reviews I read continued to make it sound interesting and so I followed my gut instinct. I still don't feel quite as clear on some of what happened in the film as Roger Ebert did, but I do agree with his very favourable review of it. I especially applaud George Clooney's tour de force acting performance, which included very little dialogue. Briefly, the film is about a professional hit man (Clooney) who's either completely cool and in control or constantly nervous and on edge, or both. The setting is Italy, mainly a small town where he's working on a job of preparing a very specialized weapon for a client; all the arrangements are made by his boss/master, with whom he has very terse communications by phone. As described in the reviews, the film has very stark, minimalist and Zen-like feel to it. The scenery was compelling though not the green lushness one often associates with Italy but in general rather craggy hills with colourless villages built on them. I thought all the cinematography was also excellent. I didn't find it a terribly violent film, though of course because of the plot and characters, there are a few scenes of shootings. Anyway, this film is obviously not for everyone; it doesn't have a thought-provoking message but I found engrossing and haunting and a very interesting character study.