Every spy movie must be compared to James Bond. I didn't invent this rule and I don't like it much either, but that's just the way it is. Whether you're Jason Bourne, XXX, Austin Powers or Timothy Dalton, the people are inevitably compare to you the supposed gold(finger) standard of Sean Connery's classic portrayal of 007. Now that this rule has been firmly established I can say that The American is nothing like a James Bond movie. For one, it is slow, slow, slow. But that's not a fault by any measure. And it's not really slow, it's calculated. It's geologic. And it's probably much more like being a spy than anything in a Bond movie. Clooney's character is a bit of a wierdo (he's obsessed with butterflies), the kind of wierdo that you become when you're spending lots of time by yourself doing intricate, secretive spy work. However, that's not to say that the movie doesn't have a few exciting action sequences or that Clooney doesn't make a special lady friend (I mean, come on, he's George Clooney) or anything like that. The movie takes these tropes on from a different perspective than usual.
The movie's biggest fault is also a matter of perspective. The bulk of the action is viewed from George Clooney's point of view, with only a few scenes towards the end breaking it up. These scenes steer it all back towards standard action movie land, which is pretty disappointing. I would love to see a version of this movie where I never know anything that Clooney doesn't also know.
Cost/Benefit analysis: Saw it at full price, which it was worth.
Nerdy injoke: G.C., the lone American in a sea of Italians, steps into a diner playing Serio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. Get it? Hint: in this movie, the Italians aren't supposed to be Mexicans.
