Globetrotting thriller with high-profile villains

The International
 Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Brían F O’Byrne 
 Director: Tom Twyker
 Rating: ***

A globe-hopping (Berlin, New York, Istanbul, Milan) thriller with a morally corrupt financial institution (remember the BCCI scandal of 1991?) playing villain-in-chief, The International is incidentally topical but the flight of fancy on display is typical of the Hollywood biggie. And mind you, even Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) can’t make much of a difference there. His narrative, typical in its thriller format, trails the cat-and-mouse daredevilry between the IBBC caretakers and the Interpol agents.

The IBBC run by Skarssen (Ulrich Thomsen), is a behemoth financial Institution that made its money from laundering for terrorist groups and high-profile criminals. Now they are attempting to broker a major arms deal that involves China, Africa, and Middle Eastern rogue factions. Interpol agent Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are hot on their trail, unravelling the myriad cover-ups and hoping to net the big fish even at the risk of their own lives.

The film opens well. Tom Tykwer’s style is artistic and together with Frank Griebe’s awe-inspiring imagery, makes for a hi-brow experience. But it’s not all to the good… Far too much information is crammed into the narrative, making it a trifle convoluted and diluting the intensity of the experience. The set-up is quite languidly paced, the plot takes quite a while to develop and even the action erupts in a subtle and meticulously orchestrated manner.

You get the first taste when people die of untraceable poisons, then assassins sneak up on each other to score hits, and then comes the stunner at the Guggenheim Museum where gun-wielding banker-terrorists attack their own hit-man to keep the truth out of the picture.

The narrative unfurls in an erudite and fluid manner. The film is smartly edited, the action is choreographed artfully and the actors fit the bill, looking suitably inscrutable and tense as per the dramatic requirements of the plot.

Despite the world-weariness of the content, you are sure to get a fair dash of adrenaline rush from this by-the-book Hollywood thriller!