Directed by:
Tom TykwerScreenplay:
Eric Warren SingerCinematography:
Frank GriebeCast:
Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen, Brían F. O'Byrne, Patrick Baladi, Haluk Bilginer, Luca Barbareschi, Jack McGee, James Rebhorn (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is determined to expose an arms dealing ring responsible for facilitating acts of terrorism around the globe. But as his investigation leads Salinger and his partner, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), deeper into the secret world of greed, corruption and murder, they become targets of a deadly conspiracy so vast, they soon find the only people left to trust are each other. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
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.
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Tom Tykwer is definitively becoming a polymath who can inventively shoot any genre, but this time I can't buy it from his hand. He does a guide to the world of frauds with ease, but at the same time, every time the viewer catches up with the screenplay through the various twists and turns, it adds another twist and shows that this time it won't lend a helping hand to those lagging behind. Any positive impressions are mainly gained by Clive Owen, once again in the role of an indefatigable hitchhiker. In his performance, the perfectly escalating shootout became, without exaggeration, a legendary scene.
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A bureaucracy bound James Bond from the financial world. Tykwer approaches this untraditionally, almost unwatchably. I was expecting something like Michael Clayton in a different environment with scores of attractive locations. And I got Michael Clayton in a different atmosphere with scores of attractive locations. The only action scene is absolutely fantastic (not just due to the choice of locations), but it is completely out of place in this movie. A calm, serious tempo where even the nerve-racking chases happen at brisk walking pace and all of a sudden we get an action movie like from John Woo, and with humor to boot! And then a return to the slow, but in no way boring tempo. If the Whitman character weren’t so superfluous and those several rather laughable genre clichés (it applies that they might not have mattered in a different movie, but here they are simply eyesores), then I would have enjoyed Tykwer’s idea of a thriller, and raised no objections.
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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%.
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A relatively low-budget spy flick in a fast style, with a rather raw and minimalist execution and likeable main characters. It lacks the typical American grandeur, filters, and glitz, but on the other hand, we get great shootouts that in a way are very inventive. The talking parts are not as interesting, but, the fluff is necessary here as well. Respectably mastered craftsmanship.
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