The Business of Blood and Bullets

I never would have guessed it when I emerged from the darkened theater of a matinee one Friday in 2010  -- but, THE AMERICAN (with George Clooney) is the movie that lingers with me from last year.

If my Italian served me appropriately, a fleeting seen in the film had George Clooney tell a local villager he was "the American"...and the gentleman politely corrected the visitor's Italian by explaining he was "an American," not "the American."

This film was a very internalized and thoughtful movie in a manner that caught us off-guard.

It was visually stunning, as though the film was a string of incredible photos.  Lots of amazing long-shots, impressive and subtle lighting, and plenty of beautiful settings.

There were many moments where an absence of musical background drew me in and made me more alert for any sound that might be coming.  And there were several passages with minimal dialogue.  However, I felt I could sense what the characters were dealing with in their own minds.  It was as though I was being prompted to fill in the unspoken thoughts of characters dealing with the turmoils of their situations.  I could divine their thoughts – or at least think to myself "They must being thinking about this, or suspicious of that, or processing how to make sense of these developments."

Superb.

That's how I would distill it.

It is absolutely not an action film.  It's almost an inaction film punctuated by moments of activity, with a helping of gratuitous nudity.  So, it isn't for everyone. But, I encourage potential viewers to consider it as a sort of art form -- a visual work of art from which we extract a storyline.

So as not to reveal too much plot, I'll only note that George Clooney's character is mired in the business of bullets and blood.  And he's feeling the effects of the lifestyle he has chosen, as his necessary distrust and wariness of everyone has exiled him from humanity...a humanity he yearns to reclaim.