In the opening scene of "The American," a bearded George Clooney and his girlfriend are walking through snowy woods in Sweden when the serenity is shattered by the crack of gunfire.
Long periods of silence, suddenly interrupted by flashes of violence, are a staple of this subdued thriller about an American assassin who flees to the Italian countryside.
At times, it's so quiet for so long that I thought the sound had been turned off. But it's just director Anton Corbijn's way of making us pay attention to all the little details, physical and psychological, that make the film suspenseful and compelling.
Those expecting Clooney's usual witty banter and megawatt smile will be disappointed. Though he's had serious roles before -- "Michael Clayton" and "Three Kings" weren't exactly laugh riots -- Clooney has never played such a grim, internalized person.
Some may find it too grim and too internalized. While its central figure is an assassin, "The American" isn't one of those violent action movies where bodies fall like bowling pins and characters seem to have stepped out of a comic book.
Clooney's Jack (we don't learn his last name) has very little dialogue and when he does speak, it's with Clint Eastwood-like brevity and punch.
"I came here to get pleasure, not to give it," Jack, posing as a magazine photographer, tells a gorgeous Italian prostitute (Violante Placido, often in her birthday suit) who becomes more than just his bedmate.
Most of the time, Jack keeps his mouth shut and his eyes staring pensively into space. He's a man with many secrets, which he won't even reveal to a friendly Italian priest (Paolo Bonacelli) who takes an interest in the foreign interloper.
Jack escapes to Italy after the opening ambush in Sweden. We're never told what he was doing in Scandinavia or why someone was trying to kill him. Jack is a modern version of Eastwood's Man With No Name in those spaghetti Westerns, a laconic loner with a mysterious past and an unconventional moral code.
In Rome, a now clean-shaven Jack meets with his boss, a stern white-haired gentleman who tells him to drive to a small Italian town to await further instructions. His next assignment turns out to be making a high-powered rifle/machine gun for a foxy female assassin (Thekla Reuten) who's as enigmatic as he is.
Jack meticulously assembles the weapon using parts borrowed from an auto mechanic. He's a craftsman whose specialties include hand-made bullets and silencers.
Just when Jack appears ready to get out of the killing game and settle down with the hooker with a golden heart, he gets pulled back in by treacherous associates. A climactic shootout on a village street will determine his fate.
Corbijn, a Dutch-born British resident best known as a photographer before making his directing debut with "Control" in 2007, displays a keen visual style with people and places. Stark shots of the mountainous Abruzzo region and intense close- ups of Clooney and the supporting cast give the film an intimate feel not normally associated with assassin stories.
