Does the world of high finance excite you? Are you looking for a career in international banking? Does the idea of dealing in bank accounts with balances higher than the GNP of Spain make your heart pitter-patter?
Then maybe “The International” is the movie for you.For the rest of us, “The International” is just as boring as listen to your cousin’s best friend talk about her exciting day as a teller at the corner branch of not-quite national bank.
When it comes down to the bottom line, International’s problem comes down to an accounting error. It has several good positives that somehow don’t add up to a positive balance.
To the good, you have some excellent actors, a good plot and a good action scene. However, these deposits are countered by an excruciatingly slow payout, lack of a romantic interest rate and heavy penalties for boredom.
Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is an ex Scotland Yard detective who is now working for INTERPOL. He lost his detective job because he became obsessed with bringing down the IBBC, a gigantic banking operation that protects its own interest with assassinations and weapons deals to third world nations. He has teamed up with New York Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) in an investigation to the mysterious deaths that happen to anyone who casts an unfriendly eye toward this financial powerhouse. The IBBC, led by Jonas Skarssen (Ulrich Thomsen) and Wilhelm Wexler (Armin Mueller-Stahl), is currently brokering a deal to become the exclusive dealer of Chinese missiles to Africa and the Middle East. Anyone who gets in the way is dealt with their special consultant (Brian F. O’Byrne).
To be honest, the acting is great. You cannot slight anyone’s performance, particularly of Owen and Mueller-Stahl. We have seen him playing various villainous or Eastern Europeanpoliticians roles for what seems like forever, but I thought his performance really stood out in the film.
In the plus column for directing, the shoot out at the Guggenheim
Museum was spectacular. However, it was the only bit of excitement in the film and was pretty much the climax of the film. Unfortunately, this high point came at about the halfway point between several long and drawn out scenes that made you wish that your credit card was declined when you bought tickets.
I was sure that this movie was based on a book. If it were a novel, the suspense and intrigue might have held up for an interesting read. I was betting that in some weird happenstance, the producers decided to follow the book a little too closely and resisted the urge to “Hollywood it” for the audience.
However, as it turns out, it was written for the screen by Eric
Singer. Of course, we don’t know how much the production changed from the original screenplay, but from what I have seen from this movie, he should give up on writing screenplays and become a novelist.
“The Internationalist” fails as a movie, but if you see the “novelization” out there somewhere, it might be a good read.
(Originally Published at www.MyrtleBeachHerald.com)
