THE INTERNATIONAL (2009)

Banks are evil. It's what we are all told every day. From bonuses to bail outs, they are to blame for everything that is wrong with the world at the moment, the reason oil costs more, the reason we have to settle for non-organic courgettes and the reason I am now taking tins of soup to work instead of buying a nice, tasty sarnie from EAT. The International is a film about the shadier (well, pitch black) side of the banks, exploring the idea of an international monetary fund being embroiled in the funding of an worldwide arms race.



Don't be fooled into thinking this is no expose in the style Michael Clayton or The Insider though. No siree. There's only one way to take the banks down and it's not legislation to clamp down on the bonus culture. It's guns, surveillance and Clive Owen. To say this film is a bit Bourne or Bond (Daniel Craig's Bond, not Connery or Moore) is an understatement. It seems Tom Tykwer (most famous for directing Run Lola Run and Perfume: Story of a Murderer) has withdrawn more than his fair share from the High Street branch of Greengrass et al and gone well over his overdraft limit.

Handheld camera work is there, so are a variety of international locations all introduced in a micro-montage as the place name is typed out on to the screen in computer fonts, the colour scheme is all grey and bland tones, the characters look as though they all need a good dose of sunshine (apart from Clive Owen of course), no one smiles, all the baddies are men in suits meeting in big rooms in remote lavishly designed buildings. It's very familiar territory.

That isn't to say that it isn't done well. There are some great set pieces, an opening that catches you off guard, an assassination at a political rally, a well executed 'tape recorder' moment that almost feels like a car chase as it gets the pulse racing and a sensational shoot out in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. All stand out scenes that deserve a lot of credit. But Bourne and Casino Royale aren't lauded just for the action. It's what happens between the explosions and gun fights that sets them aside. Bourne struggling to come to terms with his existence as the truth about himself unravels, Craig's Bond was the first incarnation of that character that really got wounded, physically and emotionally, and they both had a jet black streak that made them unpredictable and unsettling.

Clive Owen's equivalent here, an Interpol agent named Louise Salinger, is basically Clive Owen. He's good at the jumping around part but there isn't an arc to his character, the only development being that he becomes more and more determined as the film goes on. Salinger lacked another dimension that would have made the film much more interesting.

Naomi Watts is there as well in a remarkably inconsequential role that is clearly there as exposition and padding. Plus the presence of Neil from The Office (Patrick Baladi) as an evil lawyer is very distracting and unconvincing. The only one who is really decent enough to give the film any emotion is Armin Mueller-Stahl as baddie/goodie/which one is he?

The truth is that The International is decent popcorn fodder and will keep you entertained but it's nowhere near as good as the films it borrows from and aspires to be.

The final credits are interesting though - inane newspaper reports, buried well behind the front page, somewhere in the business supplements, detailing the fall-out of the events of the film - they provide a glimpse of how little the public might know about the shady dealings of international companies, banks and hedge funds. Thought provoking stuff but let down by the grittily presented 120 minutes of fluff that preceded it.