Dodgy banks and government cover ups. Sound familiar? (The International (DVD))

Member Name: FairyG

Product:	The International (DVD)
Date:	03/04/09 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fairly realistic and quite stylish looking.

Disadvantages: The first half is complicated and slow. Some people might see that as an advantage though!

The International tells the story of Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) an Interpol agent who is investigating a bank acting as a broker in Chinese small arms trading. His partner gets assassinated in classic spy manner at the very beginning of the film. Keep a close eye on what happens in the first few minutes because it's so sneaky you can miss it. Salinger joins forces with American DA Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) to try and uncover a global conspiracy.

But the bank will stop at nothing to conceal its corrupt activities and sends its own agents out to get rid of them. Salinger begins to realize that several world governments are tied up in this, to the extent of suppressing what they know. After all, it's in their interest to reap the benefit of bank profits, and banks make a big profit from the debt that builds up after a war. However, it's personal for Salinger and he isn't going to let it go easily. He wants to break open the whole conspiracy. The trail of money leads them on a chase from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul.

This is a film that reflects the current zeitgeist (the spirit of the age) in the way that 1987 film Wall Street was a reflection of corporate greed at the time. It's all going to look very familiar: banks on the brink of collapse, profits made out of the misery of war, government cover ups, whistle-blowers paying a high price for opening their mouths.

In the previews it looks like a fast action film but that can be quite deceiving. The first half of the film is ploddingly slow as the characters follow up leads in a series of meetings. It's complicated and needs close attention to keep up with what's happening or you won't have a clue what's going on in the rest of the film. The second half explodes into action, so it's worth keeping pace with what's going on. It's a grittily realistic film where the good guys don't miraculously dodge bullets, there are no improbable car chases, and if someone's injured they don't feel better after a two minute rest (eg. Bruce Willis) instead they pass out and wake up in hospital.

Clive Owen is quite good in this as the angry agent who isn't going to give up. He looks uncertain sometimes, as if he realizes he might be in over his head. I like that about him. Naomi Watts puts in a fair enough performance as the DA. She's not too pretty and glossy, but serious and businesslike. Refreshingly there is no relationship going on between these two. Okay that usually adds interest to a film like this, but it's a bit of a cliché now and it makes a change to just see the characters getting on with their job.

This is a film that works hard at being intelligent, and it is, but along the way it somehow fails to engage the viewer enough. It's not easy entertainment and I think it didn't need to be quite this complex to tell its story. The end of the film is strangely abrupt, but really at this point the story is finished and there's really nothing more to tell. It's an unusual ending, but it's in the realistic spirit of the rest of the film so it works. Just don't expect any exciting denouement. I can't quite bring myself to give it more than 3 stars.

Director: Tom Tykwer
Certificate: 15
Runtime: 117 minutes

Summary: Not one I'd bother watching again.