The International

The International is a decent, though somewhat chatty, political/espionage flick with one excellent shootout. The characters are not exactly depicted in detail, which makes the audience appreciate the expressive body language of Clive Owen. He’s a perfect fit for his agent character. Naomi Watts is just there for marketing purposes, so that her face could be put on the posters. The story is overly contrived but interesting and the soft, pulsating electronic music helps to keep the suspense going (it’s simply fun to root for a bold, likable guy standing up against the most powerful manipulators in the world). There’s also an atmospheric manor on a cliff, looking like something from a Bond film. It’s no new Bourne and Michael Clayton went deeper, but Tykwer’s commercial flick does reach the level of Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter. (03/03/2009)

A relatively low-budget spy flick in a fast style, with a rather raw and minimalist execution and likeable main characters. It lacks the typical American grandeur, filters, and glitz, but on the other hand, we get great shootouts that in a way are very inventive. The talking parts are not as interesting, but, the fluff is necessary here as well. Respectably mastered craftsmanship. (19/09/2009)

Tom Tykwer is definitively becoming a polymath who can inventively shoot any genre, but this time I can't buy it from his hand. He does a guide to the world of frauds with ease, but at the same time, every time the viewer catches up with the screenplay through the various twists and turns, it adds another twist and shows that this time it won't lend a helping hand to those lagging behind. Any positive impressions are mainly gained by Clive Owen, once again in the role of an indefatigable hitchhiker. In his performance, the perfectly escalating shootout became, without exaggeration, a legendary scene. (19/10/2009)

A bureaucracy bound James Bond from the financial world. Tykwer approaches this untraditionally, almost unwatchably. I was expecting something like Michael Clayton in a different environment with scores of attractive locations. And I got Michael Clayton in a different atmosphere with scores of attractive locations. The only action scene is absolutely fantastic (not just due to the choice of locations), but it is completely out of place in this movie. A calm, serious tempo where even the nerve-racking chases happen at brisk walking pace and all of a sudden we get an action movie like from John Woo, and with humor to boot! And then a return to the slow, but in no way boring tempo. If the Whitman character weren’t so superfluous and those several rather laughable genre clichés (it applies that they might not have mattered in a different movie, but here they are simply eyesores), then I would have enjoyed Tykwer’s idea of a thriller, and raised no objections. (29/03/2009)

Tom Tykwer, clearly impressed by the recent "Bond films" and the "Bourne Trilogy," decided to make his own contribution to the theme of lone agents standing up to powerful multinational organizations, and the result is a very unconventional, yet impressive spectacle. Although the characters are in constant motion, the locations change and the plot moves along briskly. Tykwer's storytelling is surprisingly sparing, slightly distant (the almost fetishistic emphasis on modern architecture), and relatively slow-paced (except for the unique shootout, which is unparalleled). Yet, amazingly, it all works. After seeing a film like this, one can only get the impression that banks are the evil of this world - if one has forgotten that they caused the current economic crisis. :) PS: The reference to The Jackal pleased me. Power. (20/06/2009)