The International (D+ or 1.5/4 stars)
Meh. Meh, with a side of WOW (for a shoot out scene in the Guggenheim Museum). This is how I can best describe 'The International', a thriller directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Perfume). The plot: Interpol Agent Louis Salinger & Asst. District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Clive Owen, Naomi Watts) aim to bring justice to one of the world's most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities such as arms trading & $$ laundering, the duo's investigation takes them from Germany to Italy to New York to Turkey. Being chased around the globe, they find themselves in deep trouble (with their lives at risk), as the villainous bank will stop at nothing to continue financing both war & terror. The story is convoluted. The characters are paper thin. If not for some intermittently tight direction & decent cinematography, this film would have been a complete bust.
The men in charge of the International Bank for Business & Credit (IBBC) are organizing arms deals so they can operate the debts of countries in the Middle East & Africa; where wars are an everyday occurrence. If someone wants to expose IBBC's secrets, that person's life would be in serious jeopardy. When one of Louis & Eleanor's mutual colleagues are killed, they figure out that the IBBC is somehow linked with both spy organizations and the dealing of arms to 3rd world nations. IBBC's ultimate scheme: to help destabilize small governments so that new govt's would owe their finances to the bank. Mayhem ensues ... blackmail, double-crosses, & murder. I found all of this quite inscrutable. Desperate to make sense of the plot, all it gave me in return was a mind-numbing headache.
'The International' gets a few things right. The action-oriented scenes are pretty neat to watch. The best though IS an 8 minute gunfight that is staged inside the Guggenheim Museum. The suspense is there. The choreography of the fight is wonderful. It all works. WHY couldn't the rest of the film have aimed for such excellence? The international bank conspiracy theory is not well outlined from the onset and becomes more & more labyrinthine as it goes; when it needn't be, at all. The climax is both silly & anti-climactic. The tone of the film is cold, clinical, & distancing. You don't care about anything that is going on, nor any of the characters. It's been a long time since I've cared so little about the people IN a movie (particularly when they're the good guys).
Clive Owen (normally quite charismatic) is a badass wannabe here. He's a walking, talking robot of a character. Naomi Watts (whom I normally love) is fairly awkward in a completely underwritten role. They're just so uninteresting. Various characters face moral dilemmas throughout the movie, but I was not invested in them (as characters) or anything else, as a matter of fact. If there's any character that I felt anything for, it would have been Armin Mueller-Stuhl's ex-Stasi colonel who gathered intel for the IBBC. Problem is ... he's not our protagonist, and he's barely in the film.
I have no doubt that without the brilliant Guggenheim sequence, I would have given this film 1 star. 'The Interpreter' was an average movie; and though this film reminded me of it, this one is even worse. The nail-in-the-coffin for this film is its 'passionless pointlessness'. Maybe it's trying to say something relevant about today's Bank/Law/ATM/3rd world culture ... but I didn't get anything from it. It's a dull movie. I don't remember specific aspects of the film, I remember images. i.e., gray streets, tall, architecturally-sound skyscrapers, cloudy skies, Naomi Watt's blonde hair, etc. 'The International' isn't atrocious. But it lacks the necessary story, dialogue, characterizations, & suspense that make a typically stellar thriller. Tykwer's earlier films offered something: Run Lola Run was full of energy & creativity; Perfume offered sumptuousness & intrigue. THIS film offers nothing new. It's nice to look at, but quickly forgettable.
The men in charge of the International Bank for Business & Credit (IBBC) are organizing arms deals so they can operate the debts of countries in the Middle East & Africa; where wars are an everyday occurrence. If someone wants to expose IBBC's secrets, that person's life would be in serious jeopardy. When one of Louis & Eleanor's mutual colleagues are killed, they figure out that the IBBC is somehow linked with both spy organizations and the dealing of arms to 3rd world nations. IBBC's ultimate scheme: to help destabilize small governments so that new govt's would owe their finances to the bank. Mayhem ensues ... blackmail, double-crosses, & murder. I found all of this quite inscrutable. Desperate to make sense of the plot, all it gave me in return was a mind-numbing headache.
'The International' gets a few things right. The action-oriented scenes are pretty neat to watch. The best though IS an 8 minute gunfight that is staged inside the Guggenheim Museum. The suspense is there. The choreography of the fight is wonderful. It all works. WHY couldn't the rest of the film have aimed for such excellence? The international bank conspiracy theory is not well outlined from the onset and becomes more & more labyrinthine as it goes; when it needn't be, at all. The climax is both silly & anti-climactic. The tone of the film is cold, clinical, & distancing. You don't care about anything that is going on, nor any of the characters. It's been a long time since I've cared so little about the people IN a movie (particularly when they're the good guys).
Clive Owen (normally quite charismatic) is a badass wannabe here. He's a walking, talking robot of a character. Naomi Watts (whom I normally love) is fairly awkward in a completely underwritten role. They're just so uninteresting. Various characters face moral dilemmas throughout the movie, but I was not invested in them (as characters) or anything else, as a matter of fact. If there's any character that I felt anything for, it would have been Armin Mueller-Stuhl's ex-Stasi colonel who gathered intel for the IBBC. Problem is ... he's not our protagonist, and he's barely in the film.
I have no doubt that without the brilliant Guggenheim sequence, I would have given this film 1 star. 'The Interpreter' was an average movie; and though this film reminded me of it, this one is even worse. The nail-in-the-coffin for this film is its 'passionless pointlessness'. Maybe it's trying to say something relevant about today's Bank/Law/ATM/3rd world culture ... but I didn't get anything from it. It's a dull movie. I don't remember specific aspects of the film, I remember images. i.e., gray streets, tall, architecturally-sound skyscrapers, cloudy skies, Naomi Watt's blonde hair, etc. 'The International' isn't atrocious. But it lacks the necessary story, dialogue, characterizations, & suspense that make a typically stellar thriller. Tykwer's earlier films offered something: Run Lola Run was full of energy & creativity; Perfume offered sumptuousness & intrigue. THIS film offers nothing new. It's nice to look at, but quickly forgettable.