There is no end to the road to escape from hell

As can be seen from the trailer, Focus Pictures described "The American" as an action film like "Bourne Bourne" during the promotional period, and with the promotion of George Clooney, the schedule was placed at the end of the summer season. , it is not difficult to see its box office ambitions. Subsequent North American box-office charts proved that the focus was still a success, but disappointed viewers who expected to see exciting action scenes and unexpected suspense plots. "American" tells the story of a killer who meets and falls in love with a prostitute in a small Italian town and wants to wash his hands, but he is killed. In this way, it is "classical" if it sounds good, and it is a story of "bad street" if it sounds bad, but Anton Corbijn is just inlaid with gold, making it a delicate and moving "artistic action film".

Personally, I feel that the quality of a movie does not necessarily depend on whether its story and theme are conventional or novel, and sometimes how to tell the story is more important. The calm and slow narrative in the first half of the film brings the audience into the lonely world of the male protagonist Jack, with a large number of close-ups and follow-ups of Jack, or placing him in a panorama of beautiful scenery to make it even more lonely. Camera d'Or's Anton Corbijn allows for excellent cinematography throughout, while also using restrained emotions to blend the photography and the emotions conveyed by the story. When the priest said that Jack lived in a hell where there was no love of any kind, maybe Jack decided to make a change. The appearance of the strange woman who had shot her head without hesitation before turned into a sense of guilt, entangled Jack in his sleep, sweating profusely. Therefore, the prostitute is not so much the love that Jack met, but rather a ticket to escape from hell, making him think that God really gave him a chance to choose. But on the way he killed the Boss and drove to meet the prostitutes by the river called "Paradise", his eyes were fixed straight ahead, his face was sweat and tears, his cheeks were shaking from clenching his teeth, The fist-shaped right hand slammed the steering wheel reluctantly, and he may finally understand that the road to escape from hell has no end at all, and God may just give him a chance to die with good wishes.
George Clooney's performance completely touched me at this moment. It was a full emotional outburst under the surface of calm restraint. Wang Laowu performed this lonely and desperate role wonderfully. And I think that's the downside of "The American", it puts the burden of emotional contagion on Clooney and lets him finally explode towards the end of the movie, so the contagion comes more from Clooney than the plot itself , but aside from the successful portrayal of the character and Clooney's performance, the narrative of the story itself doesn't deliver more emotional punch. For example, the scene where Jack and the prostitute are in a hurry in the crowd seems very ordinary, and does not let that kind of hot emotion overflow from the screen to the audience.

"The Americans" is by no means a Hollywood-like killer action film. Anton Corbijn used a lot of time and technology to shape the "hell" world in the character's heart and also gave Clooney considerable performance space. Therefore, the film is full of literary and artistic temperament. The director successfully told the story of this bad street in a "classical" delicate way, and with Clooney's wonderful performance, this film is moving and valuable. As for the deficiencies mentioned above, the flaws are not concealed.

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