February 15, 2009 -- “The International” is a suspense thriller about an attempt by police to bring down a powerful international bank because of its ties to terrorism and its involvement in assassinations and destabilizing governments. The story is loosely based on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandals. It is also similar to two latest James Bond movies about a mysterious international criminal organization. While most of the film is about detective work, it does have one spectacular gun battle in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (a replica of the museum was built for this action sequence).

Clive Owen of “Children of Men” stars as Interpol agent Louis Salinger. He has been trying to bring down the notorious International Bank of Business and Credit for years, but has been frustrated by political opposition. Every time he thinks he has a source inside the bank to break the case open the source suddenly disappears or is killed. Early in the movie, both an investigator and an inside source are killed. This becomes predictable of course, and when a businessman indicates he may cooperate with investigators he is killed just a few minutes later. The investigation into the assassination is derailed by a policeman bought off by bribes from the bank.

Salinger, along with prosecutor Eleanor Whitman (played by Naomi Watts of “Eastern Promises”) doggedly chase down the real assassin, not the one framed by police, and eventually work their way up to the higher levels of the corrupt bank, at which point they become targets. When Salinger finally confronts a bank official willing to work with him, he is told that he will never bring the bank down by working within the law. He will have to go outside the law to get the job done. The game gets more and more dangerous as the investigation continues. It eventually ends up in the kind of moral dilemmas explored in films like “Dirty Harry” and “The Dark Knight.” How far is Salinger willing to go to bring the bank down and what kind of collateral damage will there be from his actions?

The film plods a bit on the police investigation aspect of the story. The bank seems too all-powerful at times. The whole argument that the bank has to be brought down by vigilante action, and is too powerful for the law to deal with, is bogus. BCCI was brought down by legal means. It was liquidated. The shoot-out at the Guggenheim Museum is spectacular. Clive Owen and the rest of the cast provide good characterizations and the story hangs together well enough. Veteran actor Jack McGee gives a nice supporting performance. The ending is a bit ragged with a bunch of text added to the end of the film to explain what happens next. In all, it is a methodical, but workable suspense film with one big action scene. It rates a C+.

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Copyright © 2009 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
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