“The American” The Red Herring

“The Red Herring”

THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.

Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.

Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”

What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.

The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.

So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.

He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.

Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.

Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.

Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.

As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.

Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.

THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”