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"Sometimes, a man can
meet his destiny on the road he took to
avoid it."
There are only a handful of directors active
today whose films demand an automatic trip
to the theatre on the opening Friday
afternoon. Tom Tykwer is one of them.
His filmography ("Run Lola Run", "The
Princess and the Warrior", "Heaven",
"Perfume" and a five minute short in "Paris,
je T'aime") is a veritable blueprint for
originality, daring, profundity and
technical excellence. He is one of the
best directors of the past decade.
Tykwer's latest film
is a prescient drama about the malevolent
control of the international banking system
-- in this particular case, singling out the
fictional International Bank of Business and
Credit (IBBC) as a middle-east arms
financier and broker who is vying for the
control of billions in multi-national debt.
The film tells us that whoever controls the
debt, controls everything.
There could not be a
more appropriate time in modern history to
cast a bank as a dastardly villain.
They may be vast, cold, faceless villains --
but the world is resentful of the current
financial climate like never before.
Bankers are the new terrorists in many eyes.
"The International"
pits Clive Owen and Naomi Watts as an
Interpol agent and a New York District
Attorney, respectively, who are desperately
trying to prove their suspicions and bring
this nefarious group to its knees.
However, the job is repeatedly stalling as
witnesses and insiders are constantly dying
or disappearing as the investigation gets
closer to the truth.
The film is austere
and cold. It does not attempt to be a
feel-good movie with heroes, patriotism and
morality. Perhaps this is due to the
personality-free villains and the
under-developed protagonists. Perhaps
it is due to the staccato hopping from one
international locale to another.
Perhaps it is the massive metal buildings we
continuously see the characters navigating.
Perhaps it is the scale of the battle.
After all, how does a film personalize such
a large problem?
That missing
personal touch is both the strength and
weakness of "The International". It is
one of the few movies to touch on the vast
conspiratorial nature of the world's banking
system -- allowing us to see the futility of
trying to fight against its enormous power.
However, it also keeps the viewer at arm's
length as we generally care about
individuals rather than ideals.
Clive Owen and Naomi
Watts are both perfect here. Granted,
they are not asked to do much more than
conjure up some plucky intensity -- but they
do so with aplomb. Tykwer restrains
his renowned flare for most of the movie,
but manages a virtuoso action sequence, set
in the Guggenheim museum, that will likely
be one of the more memorable ten minutes
from any film this year.
The resolution is
simultaneously satisfying and hollow.
The battle may have concluded, but the war
will rage on long after the credits have
rolled. That is the nature of such
vast conspiracies -- there will always be
someone else to continue the job.
"The International"
is only a two hour movie -- incapable of
wrapping its arms around the huge subject at
hand. I enjoyed the thriller on a
surface level without ever having my
emotions involved. I never felt
engaged... only curious. I never felt
passionate... only interested. I never
felt moved to action... only observance.
I suppose that is
what international conspiracies hope to see
in the masses -- a remote observational
interest without any call to action.
That is the reason they can succeed.
No one has the energy or means to fight
them.
©
Written by TC Candler
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