In The American, George Clooney, a lone assassin named Jack, is a master among the craft. Late in his career, when a job in Sweden goes far beyond awry, Jack travels back to Italy where his boss is stationed to escape those targeting him. Vowing to end his contract with his contact Larry, he takes cover in the Italian countryside, befriended by a priest and a prostitute, risking his cover.

In its beginning weekend, The American broke the box offices at $ 6,944,000, since its opening on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. With a consensus movie rating from www.rottentomatoes.com reviewing website as a “tomato” with a 61% it is “as beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, The American is an unusually divisive spy thriller — and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney.”

More sophisticated like an art house film, The American is a spare, tightly wound thriller with low key drama. It is less the story of a man who kills for a living, and more-so a foreign-esque film, in which a man’s life has been extracted from his soul. For those willing to accept a slower pace, even if the resulting film is not exactly contemplative, The American could be a pleasurable experience. The precision of the shots and cinematography suggest a methodical approach to filmmaking, which mirrors the painstaking professionalism that defines the lead character. It is a film with more questions than answers and requires its audience to think and observe, not just sit back and enjoy the hot guns and hotter women of all other assassin and spy films of our time.