THE INTERNATIONAL

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

 

 

Packed with so much clumsy exposition — about a multinational bank's vaporous involvement in arms dealing, terrorism, and third-world revolutions — the story frequently slips from director Tom Tykwer's grip.

Still, "The International" invents meaty iconographic set pieces thanks to its great architectural backgrounds, that include the Guggenheim Museum and Istanbul's Ayia Sofia. There's no denying that Clive Owen does more justice to a trench coat than most actors could equal as former Scotland Yard agent Louis Salinger.

Salinger is involved in a globetrotting investigation of the [fictional] IBBC bank with the help Manhattan Assistant D.A. Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts).

Debut screenwriter Eric Warren Singer should be eternally grateful to Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") for elevating this muddy script with lush visual compositions and an energetic score that supports solid performances from the balanced ensemble of cast.

A distant cousin to Daniel Craig's second Bond outing ("Quantum of Solace"), "The International" is worth seeing for fans of the [spy thriller] genre.

Rated R. 118 mins.