“Sometimes, a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”
There are only a handful of directors active today whose films demand an automatic trip to the theatre on the opening Friday afternoon. Tom Tykwer is one of them. His filmography (“Run Lola Run”, “The Princess and the Warrior”, “Heaven”, “Perfume” and a five minute short in “Paris, je T’aime”) is a veritable blueprint for originality, daring, profundity and technical excellence. He is one of the best directors of the past decade.
Tykwer’s latest film is a prescient drama about the malevolent control of the international banking system — in this particular case, singling out the fictional International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) as a middle-east arms financier and broker who is vying for the control of billions in multi-national debt. The film tells us that whoever controls the debt, controls everything.
There could not be a more appropriate time in modern history to cast a bank as a dastardly villain. They may be vast, cold, faceless villains — but the world is resentful of the current financial climate like never before. Bankers are the new terrorists in many eyes.
“The International” pits Clive Owen and Naomi Watts as an Interpol agent and a New York District Attorney, respectively, who are desperately trying to prove their suspicions and bring this nefarious group to its knees. However, the job is repeatedly stalling as witnesses and insiders are constantly dying or disappearing as the investigation gets closer to the truth.
The film is austere and cold. It does not attempt to be a feel-good movie with heroes, patriotism and morality. Perhaps this is due to the personality-free villains and the under-developed protagonists. Perhaps it is due to the staccato hopping from one international locale to another. Perhaps it is the massive metal buildings we continuously see the characters navigating. Perhaps it is the scale of the battle. After all, how does a film personalize such a large problem?
That missing personal touch is both the strength and weakness of “The International”. It is one of the few movies to touch on the vast conspiratorial nature of the world’s banking system — allowing us to see the futility of trying to fight against its enormous power. However, it also keeps the viewer at arm’s length as we generally care about individuals rather than ideals.
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts are both perfect here. Granted, they are not asked to do much more than conjure up some plucky intensity — but they do so with aplomb. Tykwer restrains his renowned flare for most of the movie, but manages a virtuoso action sequence, set in the Guggenheim museum, that will likely be one of the more memorable ten minutes from any film this year.
The resolution is simultaneously satisfying and hollow. The battle may have concluded, but the war will rage on long after the credits have rolled. That is the nature of such vast conspiracies — there will always be someone else to continue the job.
“The International” is only a two hour movie — incapable of wrapping its arms around the huge subject at hand. I enjoyed the thriller on a surface level without ever having my emotions involved. I never felt engaged… only curious. I never felt passionate… only interested. I never felt moved to action… only observance.
I suppose that is what international conspiracies hope to see in the masses — a remote observational interest without any call to action. That is the reason they can succeed. No one has the energy or means to fight them.
