I like Clive Owen’s character in The International for the same reason I liked him in Children of Men: he’s resourceful, reasonably intelligent, and despite the bitterness of experience retains an iron-clad belief in doing the right thing. At the same time he’s never quite certain about what’s going on either, and remains one step behind the enemy. He survives most situations because he’s accompanied by someone smarter than he is, more skilled than he is, and/or more aware of what’s happening than he is (yet who isn’t willing to go through everything he’s gone through), and this makes him an excellent cipher for the audience.

As directed (and reportedly, heavily reshot) by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer), The International is a slick, cynical thriller, and while it isn’t nearly as good as Run Lola Run or Children of Men, falling somewhere between the Bourne movies and Quantum of Solace in terms of quality, it’s enjoyable, has a brain in its head, and you can usually tell what’s going on. One action sequence in particular stands out: a shootout at the Guggenheim, logically constructed and well choreographed, is sure to be devoured by action fans the world over.

Owen plays Louis Salinger, an INTERPOL agent whose partner dies while investigating a secretive Luxembourg bank that’s apparently involved in illegal arms dealing with third world nations. When Salinger’s source dies a couple days later, his supervisor at INTERPOL orders him to close the case. INTERPOL is not involved in persecution, the supervisor says, but investigation, and the bank’s trail is cold. In the manner of all action movie protagonists, Salinger refuses, and with the help of a New York agent, Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) decides to follow the trail on his own.

Like the Bourne movies, The International takes place all over the globe, with location shoots in Milan, Istanbul, and New York City. Owen and Watts feel like the protagonists of a globe-hopping episode of Law and Order as they investigate the bank, and though I don’t claim to be terrific at following such plots, this one appears to be more or less consistent. (There is one odd scene, when Salinger is pricked on the back of his neck – the same wound that killed his partner – that lacks any kind of discernable payoff).

Salinger, however, makes only one breakthrough on his own. The others are made by someone accompanying him, or by Watts (who despite her second billing, only shares about a third of Owen’s screentime). Salinger knows what to do once someone points him in the right direction, but even then he often survives only because he was accompanied by someone who could help him along.

And that used to be the essence of a great action movie, wasn’t it? A person viewers could identify with, trapped in extraordinary circumstances, accomplishing something the viewer wishes they had the power to. It’s been said this film is undermined by the economic crisis, but I’d say it’s buoyed by it. Salinger’s enemy is a perfect example of a bank with its funds in the wrong assets, and like many of us, Salinger would like nothing more than to expose those assets and send the bank tumbling like a house of cards.

Of course, in real life such banks haven’t tumbled. They’ve been propped up by their governments, without any guarantee of what they’ll do next. Or they diversify their assets. Either way, they survive and make money. The International seems to predict this; I’m not saying it has a tragic ending, but it certainly doesn’t finish the way it would have ten years ago. The movie’s half-hearted explanation is that forces even larger than the bank are at work, and like Salinger, we’ll never learn precisely how far their agents can go. It doesn’t feel better that way, but it does feel realistic – an unfortunate observation of our current age.






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