An assassin chooses a small Italian village for temporary refuge, but finds the solitary life elusive...

One of the few Hollywood A-listers to trammel the penury of independent cinema, George Clooney Ford Fiestas his way into the mountainous village of Castel del Monte following an attempt on his life, in his latest star-vehicle picture The American.

Unafraid to eschew romance for business in the most lethal manner, the paranoid assassin is sent by his handler Pavel (Johan Leysen) to lay low in the meandering hills of Italy whilst making preparations for another job. However, in such a small and peaceful town, an American, or L’Americano as he mistakenly hears, is worthy of gossip and his attempts to remain incognito do not last long, especially from the omnipresent, probing insight of the town priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonecelli) who himself has the hint of the sinner about him.

Eking as much romance and drama as possible between the thrills, Clooney, director Anton Corbijn, and screenwriter Rowan Joffe paint a portrait of what happens in an assassin’s down time. There is no attempt to compromise a clear artistic vision, whilst all the elements of a great thriller fit into place at their own tempo. And though Clooney does not wholly succeed as the emotionally-wounded and distant killer in the same manner of his friend Matt Damon, or Daniel Craig for that matter, he brings an easy charisma, a wry, perceptive, more mature outlook, and a powerful chemistry with stunning actress Violante Placido as Clara, a prostitute who forms an attachment to her free-tipping consort.

Full of narrow, cobbled streets, winding steps, dark, shadowy corners and luscious countryside, Castel del Monte is the perfect location for any thriller. Forsaking the fast-cutting, shaky camera approach of the Bourne franchise, Corbijn and cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Harry Brown) have instead opted here for evocative, beautifully-lit scenes that build and develop organically. There is no attempt to hijack the audience with pre-emptory high-tempo music alongside the often fickle regularity of explosions, car chases and claustrophobic hand-to-hand combat.

Instead, this is a thriller with a sense of realism that is unafraid to fade rather than smash-cut its way from scene to scene. Whether you enjoy this film is therefore largely down to whether you are willing to accept that a thriller can be as much a work of art as it can be a means of passing a couple of hours on a Saturday night after dinner and before the bar.

The American opens in the UK on 26th of November

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