The International

(SPOILER ALERT) Though The International is remembered by most for its atypical pacing, architectural tourism, and a shootup of that hideous confectionery abomination known as the Guggenheim (if all of that building had been taken down it would totally have been worth five stars), for me personally the most interesting thing about it was the bizarrely disillusioning script, which is magnificently unfulfilling; if we're going to call the Bourne trilogy post-Bond, this film is post-Bourne. It does show us the same world of multinational corporations, banking networks, mafia families, and secret organizations that Clive Owen's mad dog runs around in with his laughable indomitability, but this time the script takes pains to make it clear how his efforts are basically completely pointless, as all these groups actually work it out amongst themselves without him. Crucial to this are the side characters from the Calvini family clan, who appear in the film once, are talked about a lot more, and for all we know are supposed to be the most dangerous piece of the entire arms deal the plot revolves around. But instead, they not only end up helping the protagonist, but also quietly and indirectly resolve the whole situation, seemingly to the protagonist's satisfaction; nevertheless, the outcome is that they thereby merely underline how impossible it is anymore to break into the world of behind-the-scenes financial operations from the outside, which have now spilled so far beyond the borders of nations as to have lost their form and become more slippery than ever before. (11/18/2020)

I had simply perceived Tykwer's film as a classic "spy" thriller, which seems to have been made in the 1960s or 1970s, when the genre was particularly favored. I didn't really (consciously, at least) focus on which direction the characters were moving and which cameras were moving, and I "just" watched the well-chosen locations, the suspenseful story development, the sympathetically scruffy Clive Owen, the sympathetically un-scruffy Naomi Watts, and the masterful Mueller-Stahl, and I was blissful that the script wasn't as stupid as most contemporary thrillers.... And that was enough for me, actually. The fact that there is a lot of talking in The International is not a bad thing, and one truly “action" scene (the bombastic shootout in the Guggenheim Museum, which was probably built for this sequence) is also quite enough. (06/28/2012)

Tykwer definitively becomes a polymath who can inventively shoot any genre, but this time I can't fathom it from his hand. The guide to the world of frauds does it with ease, but at the same time, every time the viewer catches up with the screenwriter in twists and turns, it adds another twist and shows that this time it won't lend a helping hand to those lagging behind. Positive impressions are mainly gained by Clive Owen, once again in the role of an indefatigable hitchhiker. In his performance, the perfectly escalating shootout without exaggeration becomes a legendary scene. (10/19/2009)

A bureaucracy bound James Bond from the financial world. Tykwer approaches this untraditionally, almost unwatchably. I was expecting something like Michael Clayton in a different environment with scores of attractive locations. And I got Michael Clayton in a different atmosphere with scores of attractive locations. The only action scene is absolutely fantastic (not just due to the choice of locations), but it is completely out of place in this movie. A calm, serious tempo where even the nerve-racking chases happen at brisk walking pace and all of a sudden we get an action movie like from John Woo, and with humor to boot! And then a return to the slow, but in no way boring tempo. If the Whitman character weren’t so superfluous and those several rather laughable genre clichés (it applies that they might not have mattered in a different movie, but here they are simply eyesores), then I would have enjoyed Tykwer’s idea of a thriller, and raised no objections. (03/29/2009)

Sometimes, when reading comments and discussions about movies, I think about how the endless offer of TV programs and the digital era, which allows for downloading and thus flooding viewers, has spoiled us movie fans and led to a feeling of saturation. New movies and TV shows that can't rely on a sense of nostalgia thus lose the advantage of shows seen in childhood, and often they only receive average reviews, even though they are very well made. The International is not one of those groundbreaking films that will be discussed and quoted in professional journalism, and leading critics will not write lengthy essays about it. However, it is a well-executed genre film, which, from my point of view, is catapulted into the four-star category by Owen's charisma and his top-notch passionate acting. True, the screenplay is not groundbreaking, but it also does not contain any logical inconsistencies or plot holes. It has quality dialogues, decent character psychology and convincing motivations, and a thrilling shootout in a museum that even a top action movie would not be ashamed of. In short, I have no reason to give it less than an overall impression of 75%. (09/06/2014)