The International Movie Review
The International is a movie that looked very promising but in the end fell flat. Clive Owen plays Interpol Agent Louis Salinger, a man who has been tracking the wrong-doings of the IBBC (International Big Bank Conglomerate – not really, but I can’t remember what “IBBC” stood for so I’m substituting). The IBBC is trying to become the world’s bank that all terrorist and third-world nations use when shopping for ill-gotten weapons. Salinger has been after them since his days working for Scotland Yard. He is teamed with New York District Attorney Eleanor Whitman, played by Naomi Watts. It seems that the IBBC has been making some mischief out of their New York office and the DA’s office wants to catch them and stop them. With a plot like this you would think that the story would be fast-paced – but it isn’t.
The first act starts off very slow in pace. The story arc begins with finding out who the IBBC is and what they are capable of doing. We learn that Salinger has been tracking them for years and this game is personal to him. We also start to see how many pots the IBBC hands are digging in.
The second act picks up on the “who is the IBBC” theme and now builds the story into tracking down the IBBC hitman who has been “removing” the obstacles that are in the way. This part of the story takes us from New York to France, Italy, then back to New York. I will say that the ending of this second act is one of the most intense, action packed, edge-of-your-seat sequences that I have ever seen in a movie. This scene is very reminiscent of the ending gun battle in the movie “Heat”. The action in this one scene, a gun battle at the Guggenheim Museum, was non-stop. The crowd really got into this scene and it made you think that the audience was finally going to get their payoff for the slow start.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen as the third act throttles back to the original slower pace. The story now takes us from New York to Turkey as we follow Salinger on his quest to finally bring down the IBBC. The problem here is that the ending just fizzles. Nothing. You’re left scratching your head wondering if what Salinger did for the entire movie served any purpose. What was his agenda for doing what he did? Nothing really seemed to change for better or worse.
As I was exiting the theater, I overheard a few people saying that they were bored and the movie left them wondering what happened. One woman told me that she just didn’t understand the ending of the movie.
The bottom line is that this is a slow moving suspense thriller with one major action sequence. This is a thinking movie and one where you need to stay focused to follow along. If you miss one thing, the ending will leave you wondering.
With all of that being said, personally, I enjoyed the movie. I thought Naomi Watts and Clive Owens were stellar in their roles and the suspenseful nature of the plot was enough to keep me guessing as to how it would end. From New York to Europe, the locals were just as much characters in the movie and each location lent its own flavor to the story. This might not be the fastest thriller out there but it is one of the smartest ones I’ve seen in a very long time.
The International is rated R for sequences of violence and languages with a run time of two hours.
