The American

Director: Anton Corbijn

Cast: George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Irina Bjorklund, Bruce Altman

You can always rely upon the always excellent Clooney to turn up in a film that has the courage not to deliver what we expect, and to bring to it a fine example of under playing a role.

Here, in a film that you might think is a thriller – given that Clooney plays Jack, a hitman hiding out in Italy awaiting his next job – we get what has, with some justification, been likened to a good Western … slow moving, atmospheric, shorn of unnecessary dialogue, big on sheer acting.

It is a story about loneliness, about stepping out of comfort zones, about needing and finding friends: Jack makes friends with the local priest and falls for the local hooker, while putting his gunmaking skills to good use for another assassin.

For Jack, the next job will be his last … or so he claims. But in a film full of quiet menace, tension and uncertainty, who can tell?

With so little words to work with Clooney brings the subtlety of his comprehensive acting skills to a film that dares to be different … and well worth catching.

Star Rating: 4/5