The American is a good-looking thriller about a lonely American hitman who's searching for love. Edward (George Clooney) just shot and killed his last girlfriend after suspecting she set up the ambush that awaited him at their Swedish retreat. And being the old pro that he is we are left to wonder how many other girlfriends he's had to off in the past. One thing this movie makes clear is that he is a master hitman and gunsmith that goes about his work with exacting precision. His new job is to lay low in a beautiful Italian city and put together a hitman bag of goodies for a fellow assasin. While there, he befriends a local priest and has some conversations about morality. He also finds love in an Italian prostitute, Clara, but as you could imagine he finds himself hesitant to trust her.
The film is shot in a very quiet, introspective style, with long stretches of scenes with little to no dialogue. This solitide works well to personify the loneliness in this hitman's life. He clearly is a man that is desperate for some human contact other than screwing and killing. But besides the loneliness, we don't get a lot of character development. By just giving us the very surface of Clooney's character, and barely introducing us to his love interest, this film misses the emotional impact it could have had. But in the end, lots of sexy women and scenery, and some compelling espionage makes for a fun movie. 3 stars.
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