Film is Pwn

Last week’s big DVD release, the International, is an ideal renter – it’s a good thriller worth watching once.  I’m glad I saw it, enjoyed watching it, but I doubt I’ll have the inclination to check it out when it enters the endless cable movie channel cycle in a few months.

Clive Owen stars as an idealistic INTERPOL agent doggedly pursuing a cutthroat, all-powerful, all-knowing, and downright dastardly bank that essentially rules the known world.  Anyone who talks to our hero either on the record or off the record winds up dead, the latest victim offers the investigation a lead into the bank’s favorite hitman, or, as they like to call him, their “consultant.”  Next time my company brings in a “consultant,” I’m going to have to watch my mouth with him, just in case we’re turning into an evil conglomerate bent on world domination . . .

Owen’s American counterpart is played by Naomi Watts, and in a refreshing change from the usual, Watts and Owen have nearly no romantic chemistry.  Watts has a husband and a kid, and the duo simply share an obsession with bringing down that rotten bank.

Other than the shocking moral restraint, there’s a lot of good stuff here.  The investigation keeps you interested throughout, although there is no real mystery in who the good guys and who the bad guys are.  There’s a great “trailing a suspect scene” that morphs into a extended shootout that takes place inside the Guggenheim Museum, that highly entertaining.  Owen is a quality leading man, and he does not play the typical, superhuman action hero.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the film is that its villain is a bank that pulls the strings of governments (including America, it is implied), tilts the balance of power in the middle east, and arranges coups in third world countries with only the promise of favors down the line in exchange.  Of course, the International was released theatrically in February 2009, smack dab in the middle of the biggest banking crisis in decades, when mega banks went crawling to governments for bailouts and governments were pulling the strings of and determining fates of bank CEOs.

The International suffers to a degree that the bank as an institution, represented by various interchangeable executives and thugs, serves as the antagonist more than any actual character.  Armin Mueller-Stahl is the most memorable of the bank employees, and his character is a bit more complex than a simple villain. One major complaint is that the dramatic conclusion is basically revealed in the theatrical trailer, which I’ve added below (so viewer beware).

Anyhoo, short story rendered shorter, I’d recommend checking out the International.  Walk, don’t run, to the video store at your earliest convenience!

–Daniel J. Roos