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Visual:		8.0
Audio:		7.0
Acting:		3.0
Writing:		2.0
Score:		5.0

Director(s):	Tom Tykwer
Writer(s):	Eric Singer
Starring:	Armin Mueller-Stahl • Brian F. O'Byrne • Clive Owen • Naomi Watts
Genre:	Action • Drama
Website:	http://www.everybodypays.com/
Release Date:	February 13, 2009
Rated:

If I could judge a movie based on one scene, The International might have a chance. For two hours of unbearable dialogue and spotty storytelling The International has a single bright spot to make it worthy of recommendation. The thing is, it's a powerfully, overwhelmingly bright spot that lasts for about 12 minutes and makes me wonder—despite the horrible things I'm about to say about the rest of the film—if I should tell you to go see it.

First, the bad. Clive Owen can act. Whether he's taking on a serious film like Children of Men or Closer or he's having fun in worthless crap like Shoot ‘Em Up, the man can act. There's no two ways around it. The same is true of his The International co-star Naomi Watts. A brilliant actress when she wants to be, Naomi has given performances that at times stood out as the best of their year. In The International, both parties shelve all of their apparent talent in favor of blandness as far as the eye can see. Ironically, it's the film's villains played by aged Armin Mueller-Stahl and "consultant" Brian F. O'Byrne who keep the film afloat.

Louis Salinger (Owen) has chased the same ghost for years. Every time he gets close to shutting down the IBBC, a bank with strong suspected ties to terrorists, the rug gets pulled from beneath his investigation. Sometimes key witnesses die in car crashes. Sometimes administrative bigwigs close his case. Either way, the story of Louis Salinger makes you think it must suck to be an Interpol agent.

When a key witness in the upper levels of the IBBC comes forward, ready to testify, Louis and his partner jump at the chance. Moments after the first clandestine rendezvous, Louis' partner drops dead in the street leaving Louis to answer all the questions: was it murder, who did it and why. To compound matters, a string of assassinations comes to a head when a respectable Italian politician is assassinated with the entire world watching. Is the IBBC involved? How do they benefit? To The International's credit, there are enough strings being pulled and enough plotline to keep things interesting. The failure isn't in content—it's in execution.

Naomi Watts fills in as the New York liaison for Louis' investigation and serves as little more than eye candy and a convenient tool to get Louis from one conflict to the next. Beyond that she's about as deep a character as one of those extra cops in a crime movie. Oh wait, that's pretty much her role. Yeah, they give her a nameless husband and child to show she's a slight workaholic, but beyond that there's no real exploration of her character. For all intents and purposes though, that's okay, as the main player is Louis.

Following the assassinations back to their perpetrator leads Louis to the best scene in the film: the Guggenheim Museum shoot-out. First off, the Museum is structurally beautiful with ramps connecting all the levels and gigantic hanging screens showing clips of random films. When the shoot-out begins you have no idea what you're in for—it just keeps escalating into a truly monumental and beautiful shoot-out for the ages. Honestly, it's this scene that puts me on the edge as to whether or not I recommend this to anyone but the most hardcore of action buffs.

Considering a plot about an evil bank seems about the most appropriate possible story in this age of foreclosures and bail-outs, the expectations beyond that were quite low—and yet Director Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) still manages to turn it sour. He abandoned the kinetic frenzy of Run, Lola, Run for a slow plodding pace that only manages to pick up at the Guggenheim and the very end. Even if Tykwer doesn't cheapen the film with a lousy happy ending, it feels just as sleazy considering all the shortcuts and unexplained coincidences that wrap it all up.

I'm less annoyed with the film's total faults and more with the fact that a phenomenal shoot-out scene feels wasted sandwiched between two hour-long halves of crap. It seems almost criminal, and until the Guggenheim scene, my mind had already come up with ten ways to pan the film—but that changed everything.

I've given you all I can here. You need to decide how much you value a Bourne-saga worthy shoot-out scene in one of the coolest museums in the world. If that sounds worthwhile then do it. Otherwise wait for the rental.