Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Movie review - The International

From Tom Twyker, director of the awesome Run Lola Run, comes The International, a movie in which Clive Owen and Naomi Watts attempt to take down a multi-national bank whose major portfolio description is funding terrorists and arms dealing. An *Economics Thriller*, if you will. I had actually not heard of this movie until Suboo suggested we take advantage of tigharse Tuesday. Was it worth two hours of my life? Yes and no.

On one hand, I thought the plot was entertaining, if somewhat preposterous. I mean, the reasoning as to why a bank would want to put themselves in a precarious position to fund revolutionary armies seems somewhat counterproductive in my (admittedly poor) understanding of economics given that any returns are extremely high-risk, contingent on the backed team 'winning', and probably won't be seen for god knows how long. The reasoning given about why the bank would do it - controlling debt - also seemed quite shaky given that new governments have to be recognised before they can pay off any debt unless theyre rich in natural resources, and they can still default. Anyway. my research on the background of this film indicated that an international bank was involved in arms dealing in the 80s-early 90s. So, the plot taught me something new and interesting!

As a thriller, I suppose it's alright. There are some pretty good moments of tension - following Clive and Naomi as they try to figure out what's going on, wondering if various characters are going to be killed, the presence of good set piece scenes - my faves being the Milan Presidential Rally, and of course, the Guggenheim. But just when I thought the film had reached a climax, it kept going. Then it reached another point that I thought was the climax. Then it kept going. And going. For a 118 minute movie, it felt pretty long. I did notice some people checking the time on their phones. This is not a good thing in a thriller. But the last scenes are alright, again if somewhat preposterous, so bear with it.

The acting is alright. Clive Owen is his usual deadpan self which works when you're a stressed Interpol agent. Naomi Watts is good if somewhat underused as a DA trying to build a case against baddies. The case seems somewhat outside of her jurisdiction but...yeah. I was happy to see that her forehead was not botoxed into submission - frown lines of concern did appear when she was agitated! Armin Mueller-Stahl as one of the bankers has the right blend of creepy and steeliness. It amused me that all the Italian characters either came in smooth or histrionic though :D.

In summary, not a fail, but not fantastic. There are some good and interesting bits of the movie that are very heavily counterweighted by really bad bits. It was unlucky that this film happened to be released at this point in time because the credits show that while the *baddies* are taken down, the *diversified portfolio* of the bank is delivering excellent profits. On the other hand, perhaps arms dealing gone wrong is the real reason behind the World Economic Crisis!
5-6/10

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