This is not the massive action thrill ride you might expect. Instead, it is a slow, character-driven look at an aging assassin. Clooney is good, but it is questionable to have him play a stone-faced killer when the actor is at his best when he utilizes his compelling charm. The best part of the movie is the beautiful cinematography, which highlights the stunning Italian countryside. It adds to the whole Euro indie fell that the film has. The American is pretty slow at times, but the shift in tone is somewhat refreshing.

"And above all, don't make any friends, Jack. You used to know that."

First, a warning. The American is an atypical spy-thriller. If you're wanting to check out an adrenaline-fueled action film, you should check out Salt. The American is a slow- burner, and more of a character study than anything else. 

The main character Jack is an assassin and weapons maker who at his heart, is a lonely man. His last engagement was marred by an incident where he had to kill the woman he was involved with, and he's forced to move on to a small town in Italy where he's given another assignment and told to wait. But he finds himself drawn again to another woman, and that complication may turn his employer against him.

Clooney gives a great understated performance as the quiet, complex Jack, and he's joined by a pair of excellent, beautiful female leads in Violante Placido and Thekla Reuten. Their beauty is matched by the beauty of the small Italian towns and countryside where the majority of the movie takes place. The sedate pace of the film gives you time to absorb the mood of the setting, as well as understand the effect it has on Jack. 

The American will definitely not appeal to everyone. There are two or three effective action scenes, but at no point is that kind of thing the focus of the movie. Imagine the tone of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and you won't be far off the mark.

I suspect George Clooney agreed to star in The American as it gave him the opportunity to spend time in his beloved Italy. Certainly this is a very slight film that's all about the visual appeal, with long, drawn-out scenes of quaint Italian villages and vineyards making up most of the running time.

Ostensibly this is a hit-man thriller about a retired assassin hiding out in an Italian village, but it's only really about the thrills at the beginning and end. There's a bubbling undercurrent of foreboding throughout, but for the most part this is a serious romance which sees Clooney using his charms on a local prostitute, played well by Violante Placido.

The American isn't a wholly likable film because Clooney isn't a wholly likable character; he never really recovers from the opening scene, in which his character loses the viewer's sympathies quite considerably. I did enjoy the hard-hitting ending, but there's a whole lot of time wasting to get through before then.