Clive vs. Bank of Evil
Warning: Contains spoilers.
The International opens with a close-up of Clive Owen looking scraggly, stubbly, and sleep-deprived. He’s looking at you. In the rain. SOLD!
Clive Owen playing a guy on the worst day of his life is hotter than any perfectly-styled pretty boy. For starters, he can play men. (Remember how he destroyed Jude Law in two words in The Closer? “You…writer!”) In this. . .banking thriller (not an oxymoron!) by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, The Princess and The Warrior—good. Perfume—execrable) he plays a stressed-out Interpol agent investigating a bank’s links to weapons sales. The bank is not only into weapons sales, it also funds coups in Third World countries, arranges assassinations, and is generally eevil. Oh excuse me, amoral. The International actually makes you feel good about the financial meltdown…until you remember that you’re screwed and the financial geniuses who crashed the market will still get their bonuses.
Naomi Watts does what she can with a seriously cardboard role. She wears a lot of mufflers. There’s an impressive shoot-out at the Guggenheim Museum—why didn’t someone think of that before? Also a lot of travelogue: Berlin, Milan, Manhattan, Istanbul. Tykwer demonstrates that the old Hitchcock formula for suspense still works: you know something’s going to happen, the protagonists don’t, eeeeeeeeee.
I recommend you see The International right after you get your credit card bill.
February 25th, 2009 at 20:51
i totally agree with you about clive owen….he is sexy hot in a rough and tumble kind of way which is what really matters most in the end…..haha…
February 25th, 2009 at 21:47
So when do we get a review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona? I thought Penelope Cruz ws incandescent in Volver, but 2007 was the year in which Helen Mirren (for The Queen) and Kate Winslet (Little Children) were equally riveting onscreen. Cruz, Rebecca Hall, and the city of Barcelona were the best things about Vicky Cristina Barcelona, so I let out a whoop when Ms. Cruz finally struck gold. Who could have predicted that of all the fascinating women in Belle Epoque, it would be the youngest who would give Spain its first Oscar for acting?
February 26th, 2009 at 22:46
I always confuse this guy as the new James Bond. He looks perfect for it, doesn’t he? But Daniel Craig got luckier and the role went to him. They both look like real men, not like some other pretty boys out there who look like they care more about not creasing their Brioni suits than killing the enemies. (that’s you, Pierce.). Speaking of action stars, Hugh Jackman could play the younger version of Clint Eastwood, or Clint Eastwood the older Hugh Jackman in a movie. Their resemblance is uncanny. And they’re both 6’4″.
February 27th, 2009 at 07:49
You’re right Franzi about the Clint-Hugh resemblance. Hope when they make a movie of Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Hugh could play the role of Roland the Gunslinger. SK described Roland in the book as someone who rlooks like Clint Eastwood.