The International stars Clive Owen as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent with a blemished service record. After a colleague is murdered in an attempt to investigate a powerful bank's role in the sale of illegal arms, Salinger embarks on a crusade to expose everyone involved. Naomi Watts is in this too (as an NYC District Attorney), but mostly she cries, looks longingly at her Blackberry, and stands in the way of moving cars.
There's a lot of other stuff involved in the plot, but trying to hash it all out is a headache that's not worth the payoff. Fairly obscure characters are referenced as if we should instantly know who they are, and there's a lot of discussion regardinginternational legal policy, the indestructible banking system and how we're all reliant on it, and how the only way to implement any real change is to act outside the law. While some of this may be true (and thought-provoking in its own right), the way it's presented is numbingly boring, and it's done by way of tidbits of dialogue that aren't explored or revisited with any depth. As the plot hurls us from one exotic location to the other, we're left trying to "connect the dots," scrambling to remember who said what when and why it was important. In that sense, The International suffers a fate that many thrillers steeped in international politics/intrigue seem to fall victim to—an unnecessarily convoluted plot that feels like a cliché and isn't interesting.
Aside from a prolonged shootout at the Guggenheim—which, I might add, provides ample opportunity for us to revel in the satisfaction of watching pretentious piece after pretentious piece of modern art (in the form of glass panels with images being projected on them) get totally anniahlated—there's not much here to warrant a rental. Some may suggest that there is a theme of redemption working as an undercurrent in The International, but who cares? There's almost no characterization, so we don't have anything invested in any of the players. And it's so tedious that by the time you've reached the startlingly blunt climax you won't want to waste a second pondering the film's messages, whether they're personal, global, or present at all.
When there are other well-made political thrillers out there—such as State of Play, which should be making its way to DVD/Blu-ray in the very near future—I'm not sure why anyone would devote a movie night to The International. I can say, however, that the previews reminded me that I need to pick up Close Encounters of the Third Kind in hi-def ASAP.
There's a lot of other stuff involved in the plot, but trying to hash it all out is a headache that's not worth the payoff. Fairly obscure characters are referenced as if we should instantly know who they are, and there's a lot of discussion regardinginternational legal policy, the indestructible banking system and how we're all reliant on it, and how the only way to implement any real change is to act outside the law. While some of this may be true (and thought-provoking in its own right), the way it's presented is numbingly boring, and it's done by way of tidbits of dialogue that aren't explored or revisited with any depth. As the plot hurls us from one exotic location to the other, we're left trying to "connect the dots," scrambling to remember who said what when and why it was important. In that sense, The International suffers a fate that many thrillers steeped in international politics/intrigue seem to fall victim to—an unnecessarily convoluted plot that feels like a cliché and isn't interesting.
Aside from a prolonged shootout at the Guggenheim—which, I might add, provides ample opportunity for us to revel in the satisfaction of watching pretentious piece after pretentious piece of modern art (in the form of glass panels with images being projected on them) get totally anniahlated—there's not much here to warrant a rental. Some may suggest that there is a theme of redemption working as an undercurrent in The International, but who cares? There's almost no characterization, so we don't have anything invested in any of the players. And it's so tedious that by the time you've reached the startlingly blunt climax you won't want to waste a second pondering the film's messages, whether they're personal, global, or present at all.
When there are other well-made political thrillers out there—such as State of Play, which should be making its way to DVD/Blu-ray in the very near future—I'm not sure why anyone would devote a movie night to The International. I can say, however, that the previews reminded me that I need to pick up Close Encounters of the Third Kind in hi-def ASAP.