Image from the film, The International _460
THE INTERNATIONAL (15, 117 mins)
Stars: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen, James Rebhorn, Brian F O’Byrne, Ian Burfield
Directed by Tom Tykwer
COULD the timing be more perfect for a conspiracy thriller that paints the banking community as moustache-twirling villains?
Screenwriter Eric Warren Singer was inspired by the downfall of the Bank of Credit and Commercial International, which collapsed in 1991, just as UK and US legislators discovered details of arms dealings and money laundering.
From the seed of corporate shame blooms a fast-paced, action-packed work of fiction, pitting two ordinary people against a huge global machine with tentacles that reach into the upper echelons of power.
Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) uncovers evidence of serious infringements within one of the world’s most powerful banks.
However, Jonas Skarssen, Wilhelm Wexler and their partners hire a hit man to eliminate this thorn in their side. The piece de resistance is a gun battle in the Guggenheim Museum, in New York, where Louis has to evade heavily armed goons. The entire building is riddled with bullets and shattered glass.
Owen is strong as a man of conviction. The ending, though, is an anti-climax.
