The International Review

The International is a political “thriller” posing as an action film. At times the movie is edge-of-your-seat entertaining, but for the most part it is substantially unrewarding.

Clive Owen plays Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent who believes that a high profile bank is financing international arms deals. Does that sound interesting to you? Then you’ll love the movie. Otherwise, look elsewhere. While the trailers depict some cryptic whispering, explosions, and scenic locations (the formula for most big budget film trailers these days), the movie contains a low percentage of it. Scenic locations range from New York to Berlin to Milan to Istanbul and they change with a confusingly quick turn of the camera.

Disappointment follows the movie; though roughly an hour into it one of the best shootouts on film this year occurs. Taking place in the Guggenheim museum in New York, we see Louis and another assassin who may hold the key to bringing down this large budget bank take on what seems like a thousand agents. Straight out of a new era Bond film, the scenes are fluent and understandable (Michael Bay could stand to learn a thing or three from this scene). But this is the only moment that reflects any truly interesting filmmaking. Everything else seems too slow paced to ever gain momentum and the cryptic whispering mentioned earlier? It’s here, in bulk.

While Clive Owen delivers a good performance (he always does), it’s not something we’ve never seen before. His character seems all but too similar to Smith from Shoot ‘em Up or Theo from Children of Men. Naomi Watts similarly does a take on her other characters (Anna from Eastern Promises seems strikingly similar minus the accent).

Overall, if you can follow The International, you may end up enjoying it. But the downtime it takes between each action scene is just too lengthy and the politics behind it are dull. If you want something a little more thought provoking and more importantly entertaining, try The Constant Gardener or Syriana (both out on DVD). The bottom line is to not look here. Grade – D+