An Interpol agent attempts to expose a high-profile financial institution's role in an international arms dealing ring.
Director:
Tom TykwerWriter:
Eric Warren Singer
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Title: The International (2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Clive Owen | ... | Louis Salinger | |
| Naomi Watts | ... | Eleanor Whitman | |
| Armin Mueller-Stahl | ... | Wilhelm Wexler | |
| Ulrich Thomsen | ... | Jonas Skarssen | |
| Brían F. O'Byrne | ... | The Consultant | |
| Michel Voletti | ... | Viktor Haas | |
| Patrick Baladi | ... | Martin White | |
| Jay Villiers | ... | Francis Ehames | |
| Fabrice Scott | ... | Nicolai Yeshinski | |
| Haluk Bilginer | ... | Ahmet Sunay | |
| Luca Barbareschi | ... | Umberto Calvini (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi) | |
| Alessandro Fabrizi | ... | Inspector Alberto Cerutti | |
| Felix Solis | ... | Detective Iggy Ornelas | |
| Jack McGee | ... | Detective Bernie Ward | |
| Nilaja Sun | ... | Detective Gloria Hubbard | |
In The International, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman's investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan to New York and to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as the bank will stop at nothing - even murder - to continue financing terror and war. Written by production
The International (2009)
We can't expect every Tom Tykwer film to be as inventive or intense as Run Lola Run or The Princess and the Warrior, and The International feels almost like a breather, an intentional turn at a conventional film. It's an espionage and high stakes international drama with guns and deceit and a pair of very distinctly good good guys played by Clive Owen (brilliantly) and Naomi Watts (unconvincingly...probably just miscast). And overall it's completely enjoyable and slick, well paced, and beautifully filmed, of course.
The plot is one of those sprawling, behind-the-scenes conspiracy, third world, big money scenarios that must have shades of truth, or lots of truth, but gets simplified into a handful of bad guys and a parade of exotic locales (including the inevitable Third World warlord who is an intelligent and willing pawn in the whole game). What I mean is, the plot almost doesn't matter in the details, though it's interesting, and makes you think and worry a little about the world we live in. It's more how the heroes unfold the facts of the plot, against the odds, the clock ticking, that make the movie good. If you liked the Bourne movies (which are as a whole probably faster and more edgy) or Syriana (which is actually kind of similar in feel overall, Clooney substituted for Owen), this will really suit you.
And there is a Tykwer twist now and then, a camera with unusual fluidity, or a scene that gets replayed and rethought. Of course, the hugely complicated shootout in the Guggenheim is a masterpiece of excessive and brilliant kinetic filming. For an amazing short video on the building of the sets for this shoot (yes, it wasn't at the real Gug), go to www.firstshowing.net and type guggenheim tykwer.
In all? The best of it is worth the worst of it. A tightly made and not overly preposterous dip into a well stocked pond.