The International

Released in a post-globalization economy teetering on the brink of a depression, THE INTERNATIONAL admirably stays in step with its time. Screenwriter Eric Singer hangs this man-against-the-machine action-thriller not on the Russians, North Koreans, or turncoats in the C.I.A., but on the I.B.B.C., an international bank that wields power through crippling debt. With villains like these, viewers fretting over their own mortgage rates will find themselves rooting zealously for these crooked financiers to fall hard. Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and his partner, New York Assistant D.A. Eleanor Whitman (the somewhat underused Naomi Watts), are consistently stonewalled by local law enforcement in their attempt to close in on the banks insiders. The conflict deepens two-fold as Salinger discovers not only how wide the banks nefarious influence spreads, but how loosely he will act within legal boundaries to get his man. Owen elevates the at-times standard espionage plot devices with his now trademark (but always riveting) me-against-the-worldisms: his hard-edged focus and steely moral clarity. Armin Mueller-Stahl also stands out in the cast as a weathered ex-communist revolutionary now finding himself in the epicenter of capitalist corruption. With spirited but tight direction, Tom Tykwer (of RUN, LOLA, RUN and THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR fame) emphasizes longer action sequences and a more developed narrative arc than many contemporary post-BOURNE IDENTITY thrillers. The films centerpiece--an incredible shoot-out in the Guggenheim Museum with flying plaster, shattering installations, and shifting loyalties--reads like a disaster movie for the highbrow set as art lovers everywhere will experience a perverse thrill watching the museums famed spiral shot up by I.B.B.C. thugs.

Cast:

"Tom Tykwer's glossy, high finance conspiracy thriller is a spectacular looking film with an unsettling intensity." -- Hollywood Reporter Staff , (Hollywood Reporter)

"THE INTERNATIONAL gets high marks for timeliness....It's a well-made and handsome drama....Clive Owen does a fine job..." -- Claudia Puig , (USA Today)

3 stars out of 4 -- "The movie has a scene in it Hitchcock might have envied, a gun battle ranging up and down the ramps of the Guggenheim Museum in New York....The visuals are terrific..." -- Roger Ebert , (Chicago Sun-Times)

"Shot by Tykwer's usual cinematographer Frank Griebe, THE INTERNATIONAL exhibits noticeable visual style as it gallivants around the world, and it also has some solid action sequences." -- Kenneth Turan , (Los Angeles Times)

"THE INTERNATIONAL is in many ways a throwback to the monochrome urban thrillers of the 1970s, with the added topical twist of having a diabolical financial institution at its center....The compulsively watchable Owen makes for an ideal leading man..." , (Washington Post)

4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]n Tykwer's assured hands, and boasting dazzling photography, THE INTERNATIONAL rises tot he top of the espionage pile." -- Samuel Wigley , (Total Film)

"Owen supplies the needed center of gravity....Owen has proved himself the thinking man and woman's action hero, serving up brains and brawn in a hypnotic wrapper." -- Peter Travers , (Rolling Stone)

"Both Watts and Owen give solid performances as determined investigators, but it's the chemistry between them that makes the whole thing work." -- Premiere Staff , (Premiere)

"[T]he star of the pic may well be NYC's Guggenheim Museum and Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, both of which figure in cool action chase sequences that pay handsome dividends." -- Lisa Schwarzbaum , (Entertainment Weekly)

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