In defense of 'The American'
Netflix sent me George Clooney's The American in late October. I finally watched it last weekend. I kept the movie longer than any other movie Netflix has ever sent me. The month it took me to see Crazy Heart and The King's Speech, the three long weeks before I watched Rear Window and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, didn't compare.
I blame a few factors. I had just finished watching two discs a week of The Wire. Life and work got busy simultaneously. But more than other reasons, I had heard the movie was boring. Amazingly boring. As much as I wanted to like the film, as much as I was a big fan of Clooney, lots of reviews made the pacing sound like eating vegetables. Very slowly.
Having watched the movie now, I wish I hadn't waited so long. The film was often slow, quiet and subtle but not boring. It was more eventful than The Tree of Life, yes. Sex, violence and truth punctured the still at key times. Ebert's description found Zen in the plot, and he was right.
If you could sit still, you found reward. Once I hit play, I couldn't stop watching. Other reviews compared the movie to Steve McQueen films and political thrillers of the 1970s. They were right. (I've always loved those movies, so similarities made me happy.) These reviews typically worried The American had traded up in style and down in substance, compared to the past. I wasn't so sure. The '70s favorite geopolitical and urban themes were nowhere to be found, but I liked where the movie went with age and work. What did it mean to lose your edge?
When you looked like George Clooney but saw your hair going gray, when you worked alone but began to find both love and friendship desirable, when you traded in war but grew into butterfly interests, when you labored for others for years without question but found yourself now distrusting, where did that leave you, The American?
February 7th, 2012 at 7:25 PM
I loved The American.
I have to admit, I was disappointed in the very very very end. Getting there was grand, though.
I hear Drive is quite similar in quiet awesomeness.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:22 PM
Yeah, I'm still thinking about the very very end. Totally looking forward to Drive. The Bullitt fan in me can't wait.