The American
Focus Entertainment | Release Date: September 1, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon's in "Le Samourai," by Jean-Pierre Melville. Read full review
90
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
Anton Corbijn's The American looks and feels like a movie made by a filmmaker who hasn't been to the movies since the '70s - and I mean that as the highest compliment. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The American, a movie as coiled as a snake and as still as a sleepy villa, is the rare grownup thriller that knows the link between peace and danger and the tension that comes from both. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMark Olsen
Despite its director's disinterest in letting people in, there is nevertheless something exciting about a movie this uncompromised, in which the big change from the book to the screen actually toughens up the story instead of watering it down. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
If you're willing to let go of your Hollywood-bred expectations for a movie of this type-spectacular action set pieces, constant pulse-pounding music, a killing every 15 minutes-The American is a great pleasure to watch, an astringent antidote to the loud, frantic action movies that have been clogging our veins all summer. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Crisp, compact and cryptic, The American is a standard-issue hit-man thriller tailor made for George Clooney. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Corbijn makes the familiar strange, focusing on details other filmmakers would gloss over. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Heavyhearted without being heavy-handed, Corbijn's lyrical movie is about a man who has built his own cell and become his own jailer. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Anyone who understands what The American offers should come away pleased with the final product. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
It does for hit men what "Up in the Air" did for frequent-flying corporate terminators, minus the comic tang. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin Wilson
Best appreciated as an exercise in style. Based on Martin Booth's novel "A Very Private Gentleman," the film establishes and sustains a mood of suspense, but Corbijn seems only minimally interested in conventional thrills. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Clooney has excelled in serious roles - notably in "Michael Clayton" and "Syriana." But his Jack, a brooding assassin seeking redemption, is a bigger departure, and he pulls it off well. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
He's (Corbijn) a patient, fastidious filmmaker with a great eye-ideal for his subject here-but his austerity doesn't entirely erase the suspicion that he doesn't have much on his mind. His film is a triumph, but it may be a triumph of style over substance. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
The American is a very . . . patient movie, the inverse of an action thriller to an almost comic degree. With Clooney it's an interesting project. Without him, it would simply be boring. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
While many of its elements whet our appetite and make the film well worth seeing, The American doesn't manage to deliver a fully satisfying meal. It's against the film's religion to have us believe too deeply in its characters, and that agnosticism, combined with the plot's sense of predestination, put a noticeable crimp in its grand ambitions. Read full review
70
SalonSam Adams
What redeems the movie, and then some, is the soulful weariness of Clooney's performance, which is in some ways an earthier and less glib version of the go-go axeman from "Up In The Air." Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
With its retro pacing, its pretentious lapses and its narrow emotional range, this elegantly crafted existential thriller risks alienating its audience; at times it feels like a test for attention deficit disorder. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It does a nice job of balancing stillness and action, but it hits weakly when it hits at all and falls short of the small grandness to which it aspires. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The movie is a paradox. It's ostentatiously restrained. You cannot say Corbijn lacks rigor. You can, however, say that when a talented director's approach too precisely mirrors the tightly calibrated performance strategy of his leading player, a movie risks stalling out completely. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's a tale so used, abused and broken you can hear it wheezing. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It is a reasonably skillful exercise in genre and style, a well-made vessel containing nothing in particular, though some of its features - European setting, slow pacing, full-frontal female nudity - are more evocative of the art house than of the multiplex. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Inside the stony exterior of The American beat some tired old ideas about innocence and redemption. How can you make an intellectual thriller and put a whore with a heart of gold in it? Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The film's mood is so somber and minimal, it might be confused for deep. Had the plot (meager and one-last-job-predictable) zipped along, that wouldn't feel like such a problem. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Nothing really adds up, and the ending is downright absurd. You would like even the most austere, doctrinaire existential movie to earn its downbeat ending. This one fails utterly to do so. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The role requires Clooney to dial down his charm to nearly zero, and frankly, he looks twitchy and uncomfortable without it. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film is overripe with erotic symbols. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A slow, grim, atmospheric but virtually plotless look at a blank-faced loner who is obsessed with his work, has no friends except for one woman inexplicably attached to him, and ends up making those around him miserable. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
George Clooney produced and stars in this international spy thriller, which he probably thought of as existential but which registers onscreen as a giant bore. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
This story of a hit man who wants out after performing this one last job is so threadbare, trite and predictable that not the star's formidable charisma nor the considerable talent of director Anton Corbijn can come close to erasing its deficiencies. Read full review
50
TimeMary Pols
The dreariest thriller of the year. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
By the time The American is finished, it feels like one great big pointless exercise. With George Clooney on the poster. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The dread in the film is so quickly forgotten. What remains is an urge to fly to Italy, rent an apartment in a medieval city and invent your own adventure. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
An action thriller that adamantly refuses to deliver action or thrills, instead engaging in a brand of arty, self-conscious formalism rarely seen outside repertory theaters or cinema-studies classrooms. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Aided by a strong soundtrack by Corbijn's friend Herbert Grönemeyer, The American nevertheless seems more like a concept in search of a movie. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
At some point in their careers, most male actors want to play (a) Hamlet, and (b) a hit man. I hope that Clooney has gotten "b" out of his system. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
A pretentious Euro-snore that should occasion a fraud prosecution for any marketer who calls it a thriller -- and which stars an actor who seems to wish his name were Jorg Clooné. Read full review
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