Review: ‘The International’

Travis:

‘The International’ is the newest effort from director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Paris, je t’aime) and I found the film to be mentally engaging and suspenseful. The only drawback is, although not necessarily a fault, that the movie runs at a slower pace than the trailer and marketing of the picture would suggest. With the success and popularity of the Jason Bourne trilogy, the average movie-goer is likely to expect a fast-paced action/thriller. Well, this is your heads up. I recommend seeing ‘The International’ but I do so with a word of advice… see this movie without any expectations and you’ll leave the theater having enjoyed the movie.

Clive Owen (Shoot Em Up) stars as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent with a checkered career rap sheet. Louis is struggling to uncover a major global conspiracy involving the International Bank of Business and Credit. When his key informer mysteriously drops dead right in front of him, Louis becomes driven to find a way to take down the bank he believes is behind the world’s most dangerous organizations. With the help of Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts, Funny Games), Louis attempts to take on the bank and it’s chairman (Ulrich Thomsen) from any angle possible, even if it means stepping outside the boundaries set by his own ideal of justice.

Despite the relative lack of action throughout most of the film, ‘The International’ maintains an intensity that is more psychological than physical. This isn’t the most original or least predictable movie of it’s kind, but it did hold my attention well enough for me to remain in the story and interested enough to wait for the outcome. I say it’s not the most action-packed movie, but there is one lengthy scene in the Guggenheim Museum that offers a heavy dose of fully automatic gun play and daring escapes. One of the most enjoyable performances comes on strong in this scene from Brian F. O’Byrne, who plays the average-looking but dangerous assassin.

There are a few small instances when what happens in the story seem just a bit too convenient, but this proves to be a small setback in an otherwise smart and well-directed delve into a fictional world of an international conspiracy involving every political, corporate and criminal organization on the planet. Sure, it sounds a bit overblown, but it’s the very approach that Tykwer took in depicting this story that allows it to tip-toe past the the label of being ridiculously absurd and safely inhabit the status of being reasonably believable.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]

Melissa:

Stupid! This movie was a waste of film! I enjoy a good conspiracy film but this was just plain dumb! Clive Owens plays a boring Interpol worker who has partnered up with a dull assistant attorney played by Naomi Watts. Together, they are trying to uncover an international arms dealing ring which involves one of the biggest banks around. Every time that they get close to uncovering evidence, people die.

This could have been a halfway decent story… but they diluted it with too much downtime, not enough action, boring jargan, and a really horrible ending. The ending (I won’t tell you what happens) definitely sums up the movie as a waste of 118 minutes. There was about a half an hour that they had me intrigued, but then they kept dragging on and lost me. It attempts to play   on the fear that big brother and those around us have all the power, are controlling us, and are doing mischievous things behind our backs… and fails.

If you need a good nap, and don’t have any Tylonol PM on you… then go see this film. Or don’t.

[Overall: 2 stars out of 5]

Jeremy:

You’re going to have to forgive ‘The International’s anachronistic premise, that of an unstoppable bank that controls international conflicts. The film was conceived well before the current banking crisis. Banks nowadays couldn’t finance a conflict between lemonade stands, but that doesn’t make the villains in Tom Tykwer’s thriller any less intimidating. These are James Bond villains, not Tom Clancy villains, and the realism with which they work oftentimes peters into unrealism. Still, the way the story unfolds and the genius and confident way in which Tykwer handles his scenes makes ‘The International’ a step above your average thriller.

The story of an Interpol agent, played by Clive Owen, and a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, played by Naomi Watts, attempting to take down one of the world’s most powerful banks shoots us right into the middle of all the turmoil. The first 30 minutes or so of the film force us to play keep up as these two jump from interview to interview trying to find any way to crack the inner workings of the villainous establishment.

The screenplay by first-timer Eric Singer doesn’t give its audience much time to breathe before the story progresses. Note I said “story† progresses and not “action†. This is anything but an action-packed thrill-ride. This is what I like to refer to as a “quiet thriller†, one that develops through story and character instead of bullets and explosions (speaking of which, I don’t know why they showed any explosions in the trailer. There isn’t one to be found in the whole movie.).

‘The International’ is an investigative drama that pushes its lead characters from point A to point B to point C as they work their way closer and closer to the bad guys. It’s an episode of “Law & Order† minus all the expository dialogue and Richard Belzer busting in every ten minutes to talk about someone he just got off the phone with. This is confident screenwriting, and Tykwer, whose ‘Run, Lola, Run’ and ‘Perfume’ are two films I absolutely love, handles the execution brilliantly.

Watts’ character could have been completely excised from the film, and you never would have known the difference, though. She really adds nothing to the story, nor does Watts perform the role in such a way that she would have been missed. This is Owens’ film from start to finish. He plays the part with a fury, giving his character the proper undercurrent of anger and strife to show us exactly what the character is going through.

But even Owen is upstaged by something else in ‘The International’. The real star of the show here is the work done by the location crew. Nearly every setting and locale found within the film is breathtakingly photogenic, not the least of which is the Guggenheim Museum in New York City where the film’s biggest shootout takes place. Tykwer moves the camera around the circular interior of the building with precision, allowing the severely intense scene to unfold with perfection. It is likely the best orchestrated shootout since the bank heist scene in ‘Heat’.

The ending doesn’t ruin the film, but it definitely is the worst aspect of it. I won’t give anything away, but it comes down to a character making a choice, one that’s building in his mind for an extended period of time. When it comes time to make that decision, the film could have easily gone one way, cut to black, and left us yearning for more. Instead, a rather convenient subplot swings around full circle, and that “cut to black† peters out leaving us with only newspaper clippings to tell us the rest of the story. Like I said, it doesn’t ruin the rest of the film, but it is noticeable.

Don’t go see ‘The International’ expecting suspense at every turn or Clive Owen reprise his ‘Shoot ‘em Up’ role. This is a comfortably and sometimes rather slowly paced thriller that progresses its story with words not violence. That doesn’t make it any less intriguing, and, with Tykwer at the helm, it turns out being one of the better thrillers, “quiet† as it may be, to come along in some time.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]