The American Movie Reviews
3.5
Rashid Irani | Hindustan Times
Evidently inspired by the foreboding world of such film noirs as Point Blank and Le Samourai (both 1967), this taut though demanding thriller circles around the life of a professional hit-man. Even though he’s in practically every scene, no background information is revealed about the middle-aged protagonist. As the title indicates, the only thing one can be certain of is his nationality. The assassin, called Jack by some, Edward by othersRead full review3.5
Nikhat Kazmi | Times of India
Catch the stillness, the silence, the solitariness and the sheer beauty of this film which unfolds with the elegance of a haiku. On the one hand, there is the sheer beauty of the Italian village which leaves you breathless, as cinematographer Martin Ruhe creates one luminescent canvas after the other: rolling hills, cobbled pathways, shimmering forests, shadowed interiors. And on the other hand, there is the stillness of George Clooney who literally lays bare the angstRead full review3.5
Bryan Durham | Mid-Day
A hitman decides to bid his killing career goodbye. Based on a novel titled A Very Private Gentleman, the film sees Jack (Clooney), veteran assassin-for-hire as a loner. He's almost boring as far as his attention to detail and his single-minded dedication to work goes. After a job goes bad in Sweden, he hides away in a small Italian town until things cool down. While he's an assassin, he's also a craftsman. He works on building a compact weaponRead full review3.0
A. O. Scott (NYTNS) | The Telegraph
You have the hands of a craftsman, not an artist,” says a friendly village priest (Paolo Bonacelli) to an American expatriate whose identity is ambiguous but whose face is recognisable to the rest of us as George Clooney’s. This fellow, temporarily assuming the name Edward, having been Jack before, but known to two different women as Mr Butterfly, has showed up in a picturesque town in Abruzzo, a mountainous region east of Rome, where he’s pretending to be a photographer.Read full review3.0
Elvis D'Silva | rediff.com
His name is Jack, and he can be pretty social for a solitary man. He frequents a prostitute, befriends a priest and generally passes his time exercising and driving long distances through the Italian countryside to make phone calls. Does this sound like the type of man you might relish meeting? Be warned: Jack (played in a quiet cool way by George Clooney is an assassin. Under the stewardship of second-time feature film director Anton CorbijnRead full review2.0
Rajeev Masand | ibnlive.com
George Clooney-starrer ‘The American’ could work as a good cure for anyone battling insomnia. This agonisingly slow-paced but stylishly-shot thriller sees Clooney cast as a professional assassin named Jack, who is instructed by his handler to lie low in a quiet Italian town when it appears that a team of Swedish hitmen may be on his tail. Hanging out in cafes and wine bars waiting for things to blow over, Jack befriends a prostitute he gradually falls forRead full review