American (2010)

Editor's Note In the aftermath of a job gone awry, an American hitman retreats to the Italian countryside, where he befriends a local priest and strikes up an unexpected romance while awaiting the details of his next assignment. Jack (George Clooney) is lucky to be alive after his Swedish assignment went sour, and he knows that it's only a matter of time before his luck runs out. Not eager to tempt fate again, Jack arrives in a small Italian town and takes a job assembling a weapon for the mysterious Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). During this uncharacteristically peaceful interlude, Jack befriends kindly clergyman Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), and connects with pretty local Clara (Violante Placido). But in the process of reaching out for a little human contact, Jack is making himself more vulnerable than ever. THE AMERICAN was adapted for the screen from the novel A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN by author Martin Booth.

	Paolo Bonacelli
	George Clooney
	Irina Bjorklund
	Violante Placido
	Thekla Reuten
	Silvana Bosi - Co-Star
	Ilaria Cramerotti - Co-Star
	Samuli Vauramo - Co-Star
	Anna Foglietta - Co-Star
	Lars Hjelm - Co-Star
	Guido Palliggiano - Co-Star
	Antonio Rampino - Co-Star
	Isabelle Adriani - Co-Star
	Angelica Novak - Co-Star
	Raffaele Serao - Co-Star
	Filippo Timi - Co-Star
	Herbert Gronemeyer - Composer
	Sandro Dori - Co-Star
	Bjorn Granath - Co-Star
	Johan Leysen - Co-Star
	Giorgio Gobbi - Co-Star
	Franco Salamon - Stunt Coordinator
	Rowan Joffe - Screenwriter
	Mishka Cheyko - Assistant Director
	Dennis Schnegg - Supervising Art Director
	Michelle Day - Set Decorator
	Modus EFX - Visual Effects Designer
	Lucie Graves - Post-Production Supervisor
	Stefano Corridori - Special Effects
	Paul Davies - Sound
	Andrew Stirk - Sound Re-Recording
	Jamie Roden - Sound Re-Recording
	Samankta Mura - Hairstylist
	Martin Ruhe - Director of Photography
	Erik Paoletti - Production Manager/UPM
	Federico Laurenti - Makeup
	Martin Booth - Source Writer
	Claudio Quaglietti - Special Effects
	Anton Corbijn - Director

Chicago Sun-Times
4 stars out of 4 -- "Every performance is tightly controlled. Clooney is in complete command of his effect." 08/31/2010

A.V. Club
"[A] slow-burning thriller....THE AMERICAN's muted pleasures rest heavily on the sustained air of mystery around Clooney, and Corbijn, a pristine stylist, keeps the atmosphere nice and thick." -- Grade: B 09/01/2010

Los Angeles Times
"[I]t's a very different, more removed Clooney than audiences are used to seeing....It's a much more interior performance than usual, a dark, withdrawn role that completely avoids the actors' usual high-wattage smile..." 09/01/2010

Wall Street Journal
"[An] elegantly crafted existential thriller....[Clooney] keeps you attentive, and the drama's seriousness finally earns your respect." 09/03/2010

Rolling Stone
"Dutch director Anton Corbijn, working from a script by Rowan Joffe, holds his film to a steady, often glacial pace....A film of startling austerity." 09/02/2010

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "The film has a contemplative allure, unfolding at a deliberate pace....Clooney plays the enigmatic title character with mature confidence." 09/01/2010

Movieline
"[A] contemplative thriller....Watching Clooney wander toward his character's lost self is one of the great pleasures of the movie." 08/31/2010

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] stylish throwback to the existential crime thrillers of the '70s." 10/22/2010

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "[Corbijn] takes the thriller genre and -- far from proving a safe pair of hands -- elevates it to the level of poetry." 12/01/2010

Sight and Sound
"[A]dmirable for its defiance and acidity....It's mature, fastidiously logical with exposition, and patient..." 12/01/2010

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "Corbijn enjoys silence and master shots -- the slow-build over the whizz-bang. There are some terrific scenes..." 11/24/2010

Chicago Sun-Times
Included in Roger Ebert's "The Best Films of 2010" -- "The film sees dispassionately, guards its secrets, and ends like a clockwork mechanism arriving at its final, clarifying tick." 12/16/2010

Film Comment
"Much of the film's expressive currency is committed to procedural patience, in the tradition of Jean-Pierre Melville's stoic studies of underworld industry." 01/01/2011