A scene form "The International"

A thriller about an evil bank which is very timely at this point when greedy financial institutions are being blamed for the world’s economic woes, “The International” stars Clive Owen as an Interpol agent, Louis Salinger, assigned to investigate the unlawful practices of a big bank called the IBBC or International Bank of Business and Credit.

This fictitious bank got big from laundering money for terrorist groups and big time crime lords. It’s now trying to get a major arms deal with China that will supply ammunition to Middle Eastern military factions. This will help them to be in control of the debt situation of African and Middle Eastern countries. It is also so powerful that it can produce its own court records and police documents. Those who run it can easily cover up the bank’s deceptive dealings and even get rid of people mysteriously just to cover their tracks. In the light of what’s happening in the world’s financial climate today, one can believe that the international conspiracies portrayed are true.

Each time Salinger finds witnesses against the bank, they wind up dead or intimidated to stay silent. Since he always reaches a deadend, pinning down the IBBC becomes a personal mission or obsession for him. He finds an ally in New York District Atty. Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) and the money trail they follow brings them to various countries from Germany and France to Italy and Turkey where the film’s climax takes place.

The movie starts promisingly as it shows us the shady activities and corrupt practices that the bank engages in. But somewhere along the way, our interest wanes as the film becomes more and more tedious viewing. There are too many talky scenes to provide exposition and information about the complexity of the bank’s evil operations. The ending is quite nebulous. It’s not really clear if Salinger and Whitman succeeded in taking the bank down with the death of just one man, when there are so many other deceitful power-brokers involved. Actually, it appears like they don’t know how to give the movie a more satisfying conclusion.

The movie is directed by Tom Tykwer, the German director best known for “Run, Lola, Run.” One thing you can say about him is he’s very inventive when it comes to camera angles and movement. He has his own style of framing buildings and panning his camera on narrow busy streets. The final sequence on the rooftops of Istanbul just takes your breath away. His energetic visuals is nowhere more evident than in the spectacular and violent shootout inside the Guggenheim Museum, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright landmark in Manhattan, a blazing, well choreographed action sequence that is sure to be talked about.

Clive Owen is the actor who turned down playing James Bond. Personally, we believe that Daniel Craig is indeed the better choice. But judging from the kinds of action flicks he’s been doing lately (like “Shoot ‘Em Up”), you’d wonder why he nixed James Bond yet he decided to do much more inferior action flicks. Naomi Watts plays what is actually a minor role. She gets lost somewhere in the film’s last quarter and is never seen again. Even the good character actor Armin Mueller Stahl is wasted in his role as Wilhelm Wexler, a former Stasi agent who becomes a morally bankrupt consultant gathering intelligence for the bank.