The International

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)

Tom Tykwer, clearly impressed by the recent "Bond films" and the "Bourne Trilogy," decided to make his own contribution to the theme of lone agents standing up to powerful multinational organizations, and the result is a very unconventional, yet impressive spectacle. Although the characters are in constant motion, the locations change and the plot moves along briskly. Tykwer's storytelling is surprisingly sparing, slightly distant (the almost fetishistic emphasis on modern architecture), and relatively slow-paced (except for the unique shootout, which is unparalleled). Yet, amazingly, it all works. After seeing a film like this, one can only get the impression that banks are the evil of this world - if one has forgotten that they caused the current economic crisis. :) PS: The reference to The Jackal pleased me. Power. (06/20/2009)

Wonderful shots of all sorts of things without any screenplay worth speaking of. What surprised me most is that they managed to talk both Clive Owen and Naomi Watts into doing this, because this dumb, over-combined movie simply doesn’t deserve them. If it weren’t for the actors, Tykwer’s eye for captivating shots and the untraditional music, The International would be slopping around in international waste waters. (05/27/2009)

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)

While it looks like an action-packed romp, except that it's not action, unless you count the shootout in the gallery, which is the only one that really caught my attention. Otherwise? Not that great. I'd give it 2 stars, but because it ends quite realistically and believably, indeed it's all pretty believable in general (their injuries, for example – they really are injured, they go to the doctor and don't miraculously recover from their injuries in the next scene). So I really appreciate that about this film. Then there's also my favorite actor starring – another plus. The romance wasn't there, which may be a shame for the viewer's attention span, but maybe that's what really makes the film more believable... anyway, check it out if you like Clive and if you like the worker ant wanting to bring down the supervillain corporation. (03/05/2010)