Anton Corbijn/USA 2010/105 min
Showing @ Vue 6 Tue 19 Oct
Anton Corbijn’s follow-up to 2007’s excellent Control sees the photographer-turned director continue with the theme of a reclusive, angst-ridden male psyche but gives it a very different subject matter. Based on Martin Booth’s 1991 novel A Very Private Gentleman, concerning an English expatriate hitman who divvies out weapons to other assassins, it is perhaps unsurprising that the source material emerged during the Gulf War, when Western arms deals to the Middle East most evidently came back to haunt them. Perhaps it’s this subtext that caused writer Rowan Joffe to recast the lead as an American, symbolic of the superpower heading the offensive against previous business partners like Saddam Hussein.
George Clooney plays Jack, the hitman finding his conscience and wanting to get out of the game. After being hunted by Swedish assassins, Jack is stationed in the Castel del Monte village in the Italian countryside. To avoid endangering the lives of others by bringing them into his world, Jack restricts his recreational activities to seeing the prostitute Clara (Violante Placido). But when the relationship begins to spill out of the bedroom, the arrival of ruthless killer Mathilde (Thelka Reuten), in town to get a rifle off Jack, signals danger.
It’s the old story of the cowboy looking to hang up his pistol with his violent past not letting him, but it doesn’t quite manage to add anything new. Clooney provides a deeply introspective and subtle performance that struggles to engage due to a seriously languid pace. Its crisps visuals are easy on the eye, capturing a strong sense of place, but the deeper message is bogged down by such things as surprisingly trite symbolism, with Jack’s desire to transform his nature repeatedly represented by a butterfly flying around the place, and a discouraging amount of extrinsic female nudity which ultimately make it feel more like a highbrow Bond than high art. Corbijn shows enough cinematic savvy and commitment to character to retain his status as a filmmaker to watch, but this isn’t quite the vindication we were hoping for.