Look I love Die-hard and Mission Impossible and , yes Beethoven .But you see a movie like this and you realize what the language of cinema really is. The deliberate use of the camera as a medium to tell a story not just to record images. The space to absorb the experience and appreciate the stunning cinematography.This is Day of the Jackal (the original) but in this case the assassin is not seen as just one dimensional. We really feel what this guy is going through without his having to tell us. Kind of reminds me of the writing of Elmore Leonard where the story drives the characterization. Here the camera does. This is similar in my opinion to the cinematic characterization of Scotty (Jimmy Stewart) in Vertigo.I watch a lot of Grade A junk because hey its fun. But then you hit a Tarantino movie or a Wes Anderson movie or HItchock film like Vertigo and you realize what cinematic story telling is.And when is Clooney gonna get some kind of Oscar. From a kid on an ER show to his movie chops he must get something out of it!

For the longest time, The American collected dust on the tail end of my Netflix queue. The film was marketed as an action thriller of the James Bond variety. It looked to be fun, mindless excitement, full of sex and violence. It wasn't anything of the sort.What I got was a slow-burning character study wrapped in the guise of a spy movie. The film is a far cry from the loud, balls-to-the-wall action that we have become accustomed to expect from the genre. Instead, it is quiet and introspective, beautiful and touching, with an almost hypnotic pace that transfixes the viewer from the first frame until the credits roll.The action scenes that we do see are not loud, expensive set pieces, but quiet, tense affairs. They are masterfully executed, and despite their understated nature, they will leave you with your heart racing.The entire film is undercut by a deep, desperate loneliness. We see a man dwarfed by the landscape around him, isolated and alone. The plot is nothing new: the classic "last job" storyline. The magic of this film comes in its execution. Clooney's performance, like the film itself, is transfixing; he is restrained yet powerful, exploring the depths of love and loneliness with a subtlety and sophistication that I did not know he was capable of. His turn as this film's hero, a laconic hit-man who has tired of his life of danger and intrigue, is one of if not the best performance of his career.In the end, although this film was widely panned as 'boring' or 'too slow,' that was mostly a product of expectation rather than any flaws in the film itself. The American is breathtaking visually, musically, and emotionally, and overall it is a brilliant piece of cinema. Time will be kind to it, and I like to think it will one day get the attention it deserves.

This is a very quiet film, which is not a bad thing, necessarily. It lives of its atmosphere and the immersion into the mind-sets of its protagonists, who have to act like pieces on a chess board, where the strong one may fall at the hand of a "weak one", if ones makes the wrong move at the right time. The scenery is nice, the actors do their job really pretty well, so, all could be good, till the script ends up with a massive blunder at the climax and with regards to the final twist, which feels extremely amateurish.Anybody, who is a little familiar with firearms knows, that each one is calibrated differently and that this may quickly change (e.g. if it is knocked, dropped etc.). This means, one has to learn and practise, how the gun currently aims, and repeat this regularly.In this film, the crucial last shot (which literally "backfires") takes place long after the gun has been handed over again. For the sake of the drama we are made to believe, that the first shot of this gun has been saved for the actual "performance" without a rehearsal - aaaargh! No experienced assassin would do this or risk this (or simply forget to practise and calibrate, when they can).Unfortunately, the climax completely relies on having to convince us of this erroneous assumption, which, in my view, eradicates a large part of the magic of the film, where we are meant to have a glimpse of a secret and quiet world of professionals, who are masters of their dark art.This technical error (or oversight) is plainly ridiculous and, unfortunately, spoiled my respect for the film significantly, actually irreparably.

While I don't disagree with any of the comments I'm reading here, yes, slow, yes scooter chase . . .There's a particular element I'd like to address. I think this film is a study in what it is like to be a hunter all one's life. To come to a point where NO one can be trusted. To be utterly alone. Then slowly to begin to trust and then ironically, just as one approaches his surrender to that trust, he sees that he is dying. Clooney's realization of his impending death in that last scene, his anger, his naked need at his last moment and then he dies . . . what a superb piece of work . . . wow.