The International, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, tries
very hard to be a conscientious action thriller--but ultimately it can’t really
decide if it wants to be a hard-hitting social thriller that examines the evils
of corporate greed, or just another slam bang action film in the Jason Bourne
mode. Owens stars as Louis Salinger, an INTERPOL agent who’s hot on the trail of
IBBC, an European bank that’s got its fingers in some very shady dealings. The
IBBC is trying to broker a deal that will sell Chinese silkworm missiles to
several Mid-Eastern countries, and Owens does a low rent Bourne impersonation as
he scrambles across several tourist-trap countries in a desperate attempt to
catch them in the act.
The always superb Naomi Watts is largely wasted in her role as a Manhattan
assistant district attorney who’s working with Salinger to nab the IBBC. She
doesn’t really get much to do except look concerned and run around--when she’s
not getting hit by a car. This is really Clive Owens’ show, and while he does a
good, dependable job at playing a dogged investigator, the filmmakers never
really give us enough about his character’s background to make us care about him.
There’s just the slightest hint that his relationship with Watt’s character may
be more than professional, but we’re kept at such a vast emotional distance from
these two--with the filmmakers telling us next to nothing about them--that it’s
really hard to even care.
And despite its realistic attempts to look at the gritty side of corporate greed, The
International can’t help but dive head first into the familiar action movie
clichés, such as the protracted gun fight at the Guggenheim Museum, which runs
way too long without any police interference. And since Salinger spends this
scene trying very hard to keep a potential witness against IBBC alive, it doesn’t
make any sense when he doesn’t take the gravely injured man straight to the cops
for medical help when they finally do arrive. In spite of its own lofty goals,
The International is a lame, ham-handed misfire that manages to waste the time
of its cast of good actors--not to mention wasting the viewer’s time, as well.
--SF
Main Review Page | Suspense/Thriller Page |The International on DVD
