"THE INTERNATIONAL" (2009) ReviewTwelve years ago, Clive Owen and Naomi Watts starred in a political thriller about an Interpol agent and a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney’s investigation into the illegal activities of a corrupt international bank. Directed by Tom Tykwer, "THE INTERNATIONAL" was inspired by the 1991 Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal.Most action or mystery films usually begin with an establishment of the conflict that drives a film's narrative, along with a "call of adventure" for the protagonists. Neither seemed to be the case for "THE INTERNATIONAL". The narrative for this film began with protagonists ex-Scotland Yard officer-turned Interpol detective Louis Salinger and Eleanor Whitman, an Assistant District Attorney from Manhattan, already investigating the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC)for a series of financial and political crimes.The movie actually opened with Salinger observing Thomas Schumer, a colleague of Eleanor's from the D.A. Office, meeting with a potential whistleblower from the IBBC. Following the meeting, an assassin for the IBBC murders both Schumer and the whistleblower. The latter's widow advises Eleanor to meet with an Italian arms manufacturer and prime ministerial candidate named Umberto Calvini in Milan. Both she and Louis discover the true depths of the IBBC's goals before he is eventually assassinated. The pair decide to find Calvini's assassin and turn him in order to dig up more evidence against the bank.I would not exactly call "THE INTERNATIONAL" the best political thriller I have ever seen. One reviewer had claimed that this movie seemed more like the middle of a trilogy, instead of a stand-alone film. Quite frankly, I can see his point. The movie began with the investigation already in process and ended before law enforcement could move against the IBBC. A montage of newspaper headlines shown during the end credits revealed the bank's fate. And I found that . . . frustrating. I would have preferred if the movie had revealed how Interpol and the Manhattan's D.A. Office finally brought down the IBBC. This vague ending prevented me from harboring a higher regard for the film.I may not have loved "THE INTERNATIONAL". But I cannot deny that I still managed to enjoy it very much. One of the film's virtues proved to be its subject - namely law enforcement's investigation into a corrupt international bank. There have been a few films that managed to enlighten me on certain subjects - Martin Scorsese's 1995 movie, "CASINO" really opened my eyes on how gambling in casinos operated; and his 2013 film, "THE WOLF OF WALL STREET", had enlightened me on the risks of stock investments. Thanks to Eric Warren Singer's screenplay, it is possible I may have discovered how many banks lure customers to become indebted to them through loans. And Singer's script managed to reveal this through one scene that featured Louis and Eleanor's interview with the Italian arms manufacturer, Umberto Calvini. My latest viewing of "THE INTERNATIONAL" also made me realized that although the story began with Louis and Eleanor already in the middle of their investigation of the IBBC, the meat of the investigation unfolded following Schumer's murder. I also found it interesting how the pair struggled to find one person who could not only provide enough information on the IBBC, but keep that person alive.Speaking of keeping others alive, one has to remember that "THE INTERNATIONAL" is also an action film. It featured a good number of well directed action sequences - including Schumer and Calvini's murders. I found Louis' encounter with the bank's thugs rather tense. However, I believe the film's best action sequence proved to be the violent gunfight in Manhattan’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. I mean . . . my God! Not only did I find it bloody enough to rival the famous shoot-out in the 1995 movie, "HEAT"; I believe that sequence was one of the best cinematic shoot-outs in Hollywood history. What amazed me about this sequence was how it started on a minor note. Tom Tykwer did a hell of a job directing this sequence."THE INTERNATIONAL" also boasted some first-class performances by a solid cast. Although I was not that impressed by Interpol agent Louis Salinger's lack of restraint, I was very impressed by Clive Owen’s passionate portrayal of the relentless agent. Naomi Watts served as the film's backbone, thanks to her intelligent and subtle portrayal of Assistant D.A. Eleanor Whitman. I found Armin Mueller-Stahl’s performance as Wilhelm Wexler, an ex-Stasi agent turned troubleshooter for IBBC, rather intriguing, even if I found the character's sudden desire to help Salinger to take down the IBBC a bit unconvincing. Ulrich Thomsen also gave a subtle performance as the film's main villain, the intelligent and manipulative IBBC chaiman, Jonas Skarssen. The most interesting performance - at least for me - came from Brían F. O'Byrne as the bank's main assassin, The Consultant. "THE INTERNATIONAL" also featured some excellent performances from the likes of Jack McGhee, Felix Solis, Patrick Baladi, Jay Villiers, Luca Barbareschi, Fabrice Scott, Ian Burfield, Remy Auberjonois and especially James Rebhorn.Despite a slight dissatisfaction with the movie’s ending, I must admit that I found "THE INTERNATIONAL" quite entertaining, thanks to an intriguing and slightly flawed screenplay and a very memorable and well shot action sequence. One can thank director Tom Twyker, screenwriter Eric Warren Singer and a talented cast led by Clive Owen and Naomi Watts.
"DUPLICITY" (2009) ReviewSeveral years ago, "BOURNE" franchise scribe/director Tony Gilroy went another direction and wrote and directed this 2009 comedy thriller that barely earned a profit at the box office. This romantic spy flick centered around a pair of romantically involved former intelligence spies who team up for a business scam that would allow them to enjoy an extravagant lifestyle together. "DUPLICITY" began five years in the past in which MI-6 agent Ray Koval is ordered to seduce and spy upon a woman named Claire Stenwick, who unbeknownst to him, is a CIA agent. After Claire drugs Ray and steals classified documents from him. The movie's opening shifts to a physical fight between CEOs Howard Tully of Burkett & Randle and Dick Garsik of Equikrom, establishing the longstanding professional rivalries between the pair. Several years later, Ray, who has become a corporate spy for Equikrom, encounters Claire in New York City. He eventually discovers that she has been an Equikrom corporate spy, working undercover at Burkett & Randle. Ray and Claire decide to create a con job in which they manipulate a corporate race between Tully and Garsik to corner the market on a medical innovation. A con job they hope will reap huge profits for them. When I first saw the trailer for "DUPLICITY", I figured that Gilroy would have a smash hit on his hands. He had two leads whose screen chemistry had already been established in the 2004 romantic drama, "CLOSER". He also had Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson (both fresh from winning awards for their performances in the 2008 HBO miniseries, "JOHN ADAMS"). And he had an interesting story line. What could go wrong? Apparently, a good deal went wrong.To be honest, "DUPLICITY" was not a terrible movie. The four leads and the supporting cast provide excellent performances – especially Roberts and Owen. And Gilroy managed to write a very witty script. Unfortunately, I also found his script slightly confusing thanks to the flashbacks that featured Roberts and Owen’s budding romance and a slow build up to their scheme to scam Giamatti and Wilkinson. But what prevented "DUPLICITY" from being a winner for me was the ending. As it turned out, Wilkinson’s character had been aware of the scheming ex-spies all along and used them to bankrupt his rival, Giamatti, with phony plans for a new medical innovation. A flashback revealing the listening bug in Roberts’ apartment revealed how he had learned of their scheme. But the movie failed to explain how he had become suspicions of the two in the first place. I also have to add that I was disappointed that Roberts and Owen’s characters had failed to succeed in their scheme. I usual hate these ironic of endings in comedic movies that feature con artists.What else can I say? "DUPLICITY" featured some excellent performances from Julia Roberts (who had earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy for her performance), Clive Owens and the rest of the cast. Tony Gilroy's screenplay also featured a good deal of witty humor. But if anyone plans to watch this film and expects a well written and fascinating narrative, I suspect that viewer might end up disappointed. I certainly was.
"THE COMPANY" (2007) ReviewWithin the past decade, there have been a few television and movie productions about the history of espionage during the pre-World War II era and the Cold War. One of those productions turned out to be the 2007, three-part miniseries about the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) called "THE COMPANY". Based upon Robert Littell's 2002 novel, "THE COMPANY" focused upon the history of not only the C.I.A., but also the Soviet Union's K.G.B. during the Cold War, between the mid-1950s and the fall of the Soviet Union during the beginning of the 1990s. The novel focused upon the lives of three men, who had been close friends at Yale University, who graduated in 1950. Jack McAuliffe was a Rowing athlete and naive true believer, who had been recruited by his crew coach. The same coach also recruited one of Jack's closest friend, Leo Krinsky, the son of an Eastern European immigrant who works at the agency's counterintelligence division. Jack and Leo have another close friend at Yale - the son of a Soviet diplomat named Yevgeny Tsipin. While attending his mother's funeral in Moscow, Yevgeny is recruited as a Soviet spy by KBG spymaster, Starik Zhilov. While Yevgeny serves as an undercover K.G.B. agent in Washington D.C., Jack becomes a field agent in East Berlin and Leo works for the Agency's counterintelligence unit in Washington. Of the three friends, two of them suffer setbacks in their love lives. During his basic training for the K.G.B., Yevgeny falls for a young woman named Azalia Ivanova. But Starik forces him to choose between the K.G.B. and Azalia; and Yevgeny leaves for his assignment in the United States. While on assignment in East Berlin, Jack falls for his source, a beautiful East German ballerina named Lili, who provides information from a figure known as The Professor, an important scientist in the East German hierarchy. Unfortunately, Lili is betrayed to the Stasi, which eventually leads her to commit suicide before she can be officially arrested. Only Leo is lucky enough to sustain a long relationship and marriage to the woman he loves - Adelle Swett, who comes from a wealthy Washington family and whose father is a personal friend of President Eisenhower.However, the story's main narrative centered around the efforts of the C.I.A. to find a mole who has caused a great deal of damage to its many agendas. The failure of Jack McAuliffe and his mentor, Harvey Torriti (aka "The Sorcerer) to help a defector escape from East Germany led to Torriti's discovery of a mole with access to the Agency - namely MI-6 operative, Adrian "Kim" Philby, who happens to be a close friend of the Agency's counterintelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton. As revealed in a scene between Philby and Yevgeny, the K.G.B. has another mole within the ranks of the C.I.A. - someone who goes by the code name, "Sascha". It was "Sascha' who had exposed Lili and the Professor to the East Germans. It was "Sascha" who had exposed Jack as an American agent to the Hungarian Secret Police, on the eve of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. And it was "Sascha" who had revealed the Agency's plans for an invasion of Cuba - an act that nearly endangered Jack's life. Between the exposure of "Kim" Philby as a Soviet mole and the series of political and intelligence disasters not only led to Angleton's paranoid determination to find "Sascha", but also his big mole hunt in the mid 1970s.Actor Chris O'Donnell had stated in a featurette that "THE COMPANY" could be divided into three genres. Episode One could be described as an espionage thriller, Episode Two as an big-scare adventure story (in which two of them are featured - the Hungarian Revolution and the Bay of Pigs), and Episode Three as a psychological thriller that involved a mole hunt. This is probably why I found "THE COMPANY" so thrilling to watch. It was able to explore the many sub-genres of the spy story and stick to the one main narrative, at the same time. All the facets of the miniseries - spy thriller, adventure story and psychological thriller - centered around the impact of "Sascha's" betrayals and the lives of the three protagonists.The ironic thing is that one of the characters - Yevgeny Tsipin - is obviously a K.G.B. agent that served as a deep undercover agent in Washington D.C. for three decades. Yet, his character is portrayed as a protagonist, instead of a supporting or major villain. Although the Agency is portrayed as the good guy out to destroy the "evil" K.G.B., "THE COMPANY" did not hesitate to portray some of its darker aspects - whether it was Angleton and other officials' cool betrayal of the anti-Communist Hungarians, during their revolution against the Soviets; or their misguided determination to continue with their plans for a Cuban invasion. One of the series' more darker segments appeared in Angleton's mole hunt in Episode Three. The Agency official began to suspect Leo Krinsky of being "Sascha", the Soviet mole. What Krinsky endured during his interrogation had me squirming in my seat with sheer discomfort. Ken Nolan did an excellent job, as far as I am concerned, with adapting Litell's novel.Ridley Scott became one of the miniseries' producers (along with John Calley) and had planned to direct. But he realized that he may not have been up to directing a production that was over four hours long. So, he and Calley hired Danish filmmaker Mikael Salomon to direct at least one episode. Salomon, who had directed two episodes of 2001's "BAND OF BROTHERS", directed all of the episodes of this miniseries. And he did an exceptional job. I was especially impressed by his direction of segments that included Jack McAuliffe's adventures in East Berlin, the Hungarian Revolution, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the travails that Leo endured, while being suspected for being a mole. He also did exceptional work with the large cast that proved to be very talented.I noticed that many critics seemed to be very impressed by the older cast members - especially Alfred Molina's splashy portrayal of Jack's mentor, the gregarious Harvey Torriti; and Michael Keaton's mannered performance as the paranoid James Jesus Angleton. And both actors were great. I also have to commend Ulrich Thomsen's subtle portrayal of the secretive and manipulative spymaster Starik Zhilov, and Tom Hollander for giving a charming performance as MI-6 operative-turned-K.G.B. mole, Adrian Philby. And there were other performances that impressed me. Both Ted Atherton as C.I.A. official Frank Wisner and Natascha McElhone as a British woman caught up in the Hungarian uprising gave passionate performances. And I was also impressed by Alexandra Maria Lara and Erika Marozsán as the women in Jack and Yevgeny's lives. But for me, the actors portraying the three Yale buddies, whose lives were swept into the world of espionage, seemed to be the emotional center of this tale.Alessandro Nivola' portrayal of Leo Kritsky barely seemed to catch my interest - at least in the first two episodes. He seemed to be around, mainly as support for the emotionally besieged Jack. But the actor really came into his own in Episode Three, as the miniseries focused on the trauma Leo suffered as a victim of Angleton's mole hunt. Rory Cochrane gave one of his most subtle and complex performances as K.G.B. operative, Yevgeny Tsipin. He really made the audience care for his well being, despite his activities against the U.S. government, during his years in Washington D.C. But it was Chris O'Donnell who really carried the miniseries in his portrayal of Cold War true believer, Jack McCauliffe. Thanks to his superb performance, he did an excellent job of developing Jack's character from a naive, yet patriotic C.I.A. recruit and newbie, to the middle-aged man, whose experiences had not only worn him out, but led him to finally question the necessity of the Cold War.All I can say is that "THE COMPANY" was a well-made adaptation of Robert Littell's novel about the C.I.A.'s history during the Cold War. And it was all due to Mikael Salomon's excellent and well-paced direction, Ken Nolan's script and a superb cast led by Chris O'Donnell.
