Interpol Agent Salinger (Clive Owen) has spent years trying to bring down The International Bank of Business and Commerce.
The IBBC is using money to help broker international arms deals to third world countries. Saligner
is trying to bring that to light with the help of the New York District Attorney's office. He is teamed up with
ADA Eleanor Whitman to expose IBBC's role. THE INTERNATIONAL starts with a meeting with an IBBC insider
(in Berlin) who wants to broker a deal. The guy who is sent to meet him is killed a minute after and the insider
is soon found dead in a car accident. Salinger knows the fix is in as he knows the investigation is ignored or
undermined at every step.
THE INTERNATIONAL is a well-written thriller with excellent direction by Tom Tywker (of RUN LOLA RUN). The
film is so close to reality that it is frightening. The action scenes crackle with the shoot out in a
New York City Guggenheim Museum being the best. Clive Owen leads a cast of great actors. Naomi Watts
is in another film with Armin Mueller-Stahl even though they are never in the same room (they shared a few scenes in
EASTERN PROMISES). The locations range from Berlin to Milan to New York City to Istanbul that help ground
the film's story even further. With the amounts of money that big banks control, sometimes there is bound to be
corruption. The current banking crisis does highlight some of the problems that banks create by trying to
create debt.
THE INTERNATIONAL is at best an entertaining thriller athat does hint at the problems while focusing more on the action
and a man's quest to bring down a bank even if it means losing his soul. If you're looking for thought-provoking answers,
look elsewhere. If you want to be entertained, this film does it in waves with the action, direction, and acting.
this movie review is (c)2-13-2009 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments
to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
