The International

Reviewed by:
Jordan Burchette

Directed by Tom Tykwer

The Skinny: When a tubby, narratively expendable Interpol agent is assassinated while trying to flip an informant, his partner (Clive Owen) and a New York district attorney (Naomi Watts) embark on a multinational pursuit for truth and retribution. Their chase exposes an intricate plot by one of the world's largest banks to control the Third World arms trade and, in turn, the resultant debt left by the conflicts it serves.

The Good: When they say "international," they ain't kidding. The plot takes viewers to Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Turkey and the U.S. as Owen and Watts uncover more clues, bodies and sage proverbs in working their way up the ladder of global intrigue and moral complexity. Based loosely on the real-life machinations of the now-defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the movie addresses the suspected role of multinational corporations in shaping global policy and the eventual pointlessness of trying to fight them.

The Bad: As our nation's current financial fitness proves, the average person is hardly aware of the concept of debt management, let alone its geo-political ramifications, so making this elusive principal the villain might prove academic (i.e., borrrrring…) for some. But reality is usually more mundane than fiction, and the scheme diagrammed in The International more realistically imagines the kinds of conspiracies that stir the drink of global discord.

Fuck Art, Let's Shoot: All of the movie's action is concentrated in a single scene, but it's epic. Set in Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum, Owen's mid-movie showdown with the bank's hired guns ends in the wholesale perforation of a life-size replica of New York's famed fine art gallery.

Theater, DVD or TNT in five years? You won't gain much by watching this on a big screen, but if you're going to the movies anyway, it beats the tucked-in, wizened dick off of He's Just Not That Into You.

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