AMERICAN ASSASSIN

Cold-blooded killer Jack (George Clooney) is hanging up his sniper rifle after one last job in Anton Corbijn’s The American. Stripped of profuse action sequences or superfluous subplots, this quiet drama is what would happen to Bond films if anyone cared enough to explore character and story.

Jack is an enigmatic conundrum of an assassin. He’s a lonely loner – a reluctant killer. As any seasoned hit man would know, it’s best to not befriend the local priest or neighborhood whore while working. But that’s exactly what Jack does on his last mission. Lessons go unlearned after he is forced to shoot an innocent Russian bedmate in the back of her head, but that doesn’t stop Jack from falling in love with a beautiful brothel employee in Italy.

Disheartened bad boys aren’t a novelty the action genre, but director Corbijn takes careful time to establish his cast in an intimate way; every character here has a secret worth keeping hidden.

Clara (Violante Placido) is Jack’s sexy Italian hooker du jour. What begins as a love affair of convenience takes a different shape as the two get to know each other over picnicking and dinner dates. Sound like true love? It doesn’t really matter. Jack and Clara’s loneliness as individuals is palpable and heartbreaking; their connection is based on an attempt to fill an empty void within themselves – and that’s okay.

Most of Jack’s time alone is spent in his hotel room, where he does push up’s and peruses books that satisfy his obsession with butterflies (imperative shots of butterfly neck tattoos included). The coolest part of Jack’s home away from home? He uses it as a workplace to assemble rifles for terrorist clients – homemade weapons partly made from (because if Clooney can’t, no one can…) used car parts.

Some of the best scenes are between Jack and neighborhood priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli). Like a teenager can spot a Twilight actor in a crowd, the priest pinpoints Jack as a man in need of confession. Interestingly enough, Jack isn’t drawn to anyone who doesn’t have some secrets of their own, and Benedetto’s no saint.

As broken and twisted as these characters are, they are all worth rooting for. The American is a departure from today’s run of the mill suave-killer’s-gonna-shoot-‘em action film. Make no mistake, Corbijn’s movie will keep audiences guessing and wanting more – more intimate scenes between Jack and gorgeous terrorist client Mathilde, more homemade rifle assembly, more dinner drinks with Jack and Benedetto.

You’ll be curious where these characters end up. The American chronicles the sentiments that live in moments, and these moments are well worth the wait.


- Hillary Smotherman

A CYNCIAL DEPARTURE

You want to hate the characters in this film. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) flies over 350,000 miles a year firing employees at companies whose bosses don’t “have the balls” to sack their own. He’s a work-a-holic loner. The most important things to Ryan: his American Airlines concierge key card, and accruing enough miles to get his name on the side of a plane.

Up in the Air is a comedy that takes itself seriously. It’s a drama that laughs at each uncomfortable situation in which its characters find themselves. Ryan’s boss (played by the always comically flawless Jason Bateman) excitedly embrace’s America’s economic ruin, telling his employees, “this is our moment.” But there’s a ruthlessness Ryan lacks that endears him to us.

A young, recent college graduate named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) threatens his way of life by introducing a more efficient way of letting people go – via internet ichat. When Ryan’s boss orders him to show Natalie the ropes of firing people on the road, the pair jet off across the country. Forced to endure each other’s company, the eager girl full of hope and the jaded cynic learn lessons from each other in ways only opposites could. The characters in this film are so detached from feeling, so isolated – we want them to change.

Ryan’s biggest threat for change comes in the form of a beautiful, feisty female traveler named Alex (thank you, Vera Farmiga). In a film brimming with excellent performances, Farmiga’s is the stellar, stand-out one of them all. The maturity Farmiga brings to Alex is seamless - witty and intelligent. She and Ryan bond over their shared knowledge of rental car companies and trade stories of life on the road, beginning a one-night stand hotel relationship whenever their schedules land them in nearby cities. The two are dangerously similar – unattached incarnate. Perfect for each other.

The honesty of the movie can be found in scenes where we get to see the characters exploring unchartered territory within themselves: Natalie getting drunk and solving her problems with sex, Alex describing her (less-than-perfect) version of the perfect man over airport drinks, Ryan attempting to talk his future brother-in-law out of cold feet on his wedding day. And when the scenes are honest, Up in the Air is a fine example of heartwarming and clever, cynical comedy.

I’d be remiss to ignore giving major kudos to this film’s director. Jason Reitman (who brought us 2007’s Juno) is part of a very small, elite group of writer-directors who have overcome their famous family label to gain respect for their work. Reitman again proves himself worthy of acclaim with this piece, candidly illustrating the beauty in altogether uncomfortable, awkward situations.

This isn’t a movie that crescendos from beginning to end. There is a lack of tension at the end of the film that is settling. Reitman’s intelligent storytelling assumes that his audience can make up its own mind as to whether these characters have changed or not. I have to say that I love films where the catharsis is implied. For characters whose professional lives could be altogether defined as “successful,” how much of what really matters to them is “up in the air?” You’re intelligent. You decide.

-Hillary Smotherman