American is foreign — in a bad way

When I heard George Clooney was going to be in a movie that came out in early September I wondered if studios were trying to get a jump on Oscar season, or if it was just a dud the studios wanted to dump in the summer-movie graveyard month.
Unfortunately, it was the latter.
It is always hard to see good actors and actresses do bad films. You can tell they were trying to go for the serious, art-house film that might earn some awards, but instead wind up with a movie you will find for $4 at Blockbuster in a year.
The American is Clooney’s big mistake for 2010. The film follows a hitman hiding out in a small town in Italy after a botched assassination attempt on his life. While in Italy, he is charged with building a gun for another assassin and must also avoid being killed.
There seems to be a lot going on with the movie, but you wouldn’t know that if you watched it. The movie moves at the pace of a snail out for a Sunday stroll. For a movie that lasts an hour and 45 minutes, there are about 45 minutes that could have been removed from the film completely.
There are many scenes of Clooney aimlessly walking through the streets of his small town or meticulously building a gun that were probably meant to add to the movie, but only take away from it. I understand the idea was to build suspense in the film, but it is hard to do that when the audience doesn’t really know what is going on in the movie.
Add to that a confusing relationship between Clooney and a Italian prostitute that seems to only be in the film to add some sex scenes and nudity. If the movie was better, the relationship might make sense or involve audiences in the movie, but as it stands, it is just a series of sex scene that somehow suddenly turns into love.
Why is he on the run? Who is chasing him? These are questions only partially answered by the movie. After 30 minutes, most audience members will probably be looking at their watches to find out how much longer they have to wait for some semblance of a payoff.
Believe me, it never comes.
At the end of the movie I was only slightly less confused and 10 times more frustrated than I was at the beginning.
I can’t imagine even the biggest Clooney fan finding a reason to like this movie. He doesn’t have much of a chance to impress with his acting skills. He barely speaks and mostly stares out in space.
This is not a film to go see unless you are trying to go to sleep or you like looking at pretty Italian towns. You are better off saving yourself money and renting Peacemaker with Clooney. It is a decent action/thriller with a real plot and a good ending.