THE AMERICAN: King Clooney the magnificent!

With THE AMERICAN George Clooney demonstrates yet again that defying expectation by  choosing parts that interest him rather than guarantee big returns at the box office is anything but film star hubris.
He's played unlikeable characters before but none as unsympathetic or unknowable as Jack,  the American of the title. About the only thing we know about Jack apart from his nationality is that he's an assassin, killing people on behalf of an unnamed and unidentified organisation, and hunted by other unidentified assassins.
His nationality is an issue because the action is set in Italy, among winding roads and isolated villages in the foothills of the Alps, where Jack is very noticeably the only foreigner.
Action may be too strong a word to use in the context of this story. There are some moments of extreme and graphic violence, and even a car chase of sorts, but mostly this is a story about an assassin's life between these brief bursts of lethal activity. Everyday life for Jack consists of exercising, sleeping, and constant vigilance, waiting for an unknown enemy to track him down to the remote village where he's gone into hiding.  His only respites from the solitude are guarded conversations with Father Benedotto, the parish priest, and trips to the local whorehouse where he finds himself increasingly drawn to Clara, one of the prostitutes.
The loneliness of Jack's existence is emphasized by the camerawork. Huge sweeping vistas of valleys and mountains disappearing into the clouds reduce Jack and his car to a small insignificant dot on the landscape. And the convoluted relationships and loyalties of his profession find their echo in the winding roads which fold back on themselves, and the many twisty passageways and alleys of his village hideout. 
Jack navigates them all with apparent ease but there's a nagging sense of imminent danger which neither he nor we can shake. Too often there's a sense of the camera watching him from another, unseen, character's point of view.
THE AMERICAN is a European film not just in its setting but also its sensibility. Events play out at a leisurely pace which belies the tension pushing to burst free from the picture's frame. Viewers hoping for a Jason Bourne-style narrative will be sorely disappointed. This is a character study with the focus as much on the inner workings of Jack as his exterior behaviour, and it's a testament to Clooney's enormous talent that he makes it utterly absorbing. He doesn't quite hit the highs of "Michael Clayton" but he comes mighty close.
THE AMERICAN is a film which rewards the viewer who comes to it with an open mind and an appreciation for an actor who refuses to conform to expectations. And I promise you that, when the end comes, you'll surprise yourself with your reaction.