Movie: The International
"The International" is the latest entry in a long list of action movies with bad writing. Unlike many of the films on this list, "The International" isn't saved by it's great cast, cinematic action scenes, or lavish locations. It's not even saved by the timely ire of bank-hating U.S. taxpayers. It's simply schizophrenic in its composure, trundling between truly orgiastic destruction and some of the worst dialog issued to A-list actors in recent years.
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts co-star as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent, and Eleanor Whitman, Manhattan assistant district attorney. They're working to crack the case of the I.B.B.C., an international bank foraying into weapons dealing to third-world nations. The unlikely pair romp around the world trying to find weak links in I.B.B.C.'s chain and fighting the bureaucratic red-tape their own organizations install along the way.
For action movies, we can usually ignore the story as improbable or scanty and focus on the bounding action. For "The International", so much time is devoted to story development that we're forced to consider the writing at great and excruciating lengths. I don't know why director Tom Tykwer decided to go with an unknown writer for this film when he's had relative success with his own writing ("Paris, J'Taime", "Run Lola Run"). Whatever the reason, nearly three quarters of the film is dedicated to exposition that sounds like it's read straight from B-rate novels you pick up from the checkout aisle at the grocery store.
Not only is the premise ridiculous, the dialog is ghastly. Congenial Clive Owen barely manages to choke lines down with a semblance of intensity. Naomi Watts fails completely, being cursed with both cliched dialog and a role that renders her insignificant to the story's progression; she's reduced to Indignant Female Co-Star Type A, and accomplishes nothing in her quest to bring down the I.B.B.C.
The film has a few high points. The sound design is detailed and disturbing, often signaling plot points that may have otherwise been opaque. The locations are also incredible, and plenty of photography is dedicated to showing off architectural treasures around the world. The action offers mostly minor thrills, but there is one amazing action scene at the Guggenheim. Owen completely destroys the interior of the clean and modern New York museum: waterfalls of glass and bullets, spiraling down to hell, against a backdrop of art films with blooming red roses and virulent disease.
This single scene is action at its best, but sadly, it's alone in the sea of "The International"'s mediocrity.
