Saturday, October 3, 2009

The International

Cast : Clive Owen, Naomi Watts
Director : Tom Tywker

I honestly can't say i hated it. I liked it. But i certainly did not love it. The theme is that of an international bank that is involved in funding conflict all around the world in order to control the debt of the conflicted regions. This storyline has amazing potential, but i think the people involved did not make full use of the potential. I would consider such a storyline to be successful if i can relate to it...if i can see, like i did in 'Blood Diamond', the trail of a blood diamond from the hands of the slave miner to the underground vault of a reputed diamond house! This one did not give me that feeling. All that i got out of it was Calvini offering the above explanation for a very brief moment in the film. And the ending did not help either. Carrsen just gets shot in Istanbul by Calvini's assassin and Salinger, the protagonist, just looking dazed and stupid! That's it!!?

Naah, the banking storyline was a very unique one that had much more potential that wasn't exploited enough. The way the movie is done, we could have replaced the IBBC with any other institution, like a diamond house or a stock broker or even an IT company like Microsoft or Intel, and a one liner by Calvini's character would have given us an incomplete why!

Same for the character of Naomi Watts. If you bring such a talented actress on-board, either give her a short but key supporting role, else make her character more integral to the storyline. I was left with the feeling that neither was done here.

Same for the character of the assassin. It looked like all of is involvement in the movie was to lead to the shootout scene and then he dies!!

One good thing though, is that the movie leaves some ends untied. For the sake of the storyline only, i hope that a sequel gets made that exploits the unique storyline in more depth and detail.

Watch if You Wish

Rating :
* * *

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