The American

George Clooney's new film could have been a lot better than it is.  He has some intriguing characters.  Clooney plays a spy who is near the end of his career.  For an unexplained reason he is chased by a group of "Swedes" and so finds refuge in a small city in Italy.  

While in hiding he gets commissioned to construct a specialized weapon to do one final "hit."  But in the small town he begins to interact with a local prostitute named Clara - played very alluringly by Violante Placido.  He also meets an old priest named Fr. Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli).  His handler keeps telling him to not get involved and he violates the rule.

The film is done in a minimalist style.  You are not told much about anyone in the picture so you get the plot and the characters by their interaction.  But from my perspective I wanted a lot more or a lot less.  As I left the movie (I will not reveal the ending - although it was not unexpected) I wanted to know more about Fr. Benedetto and Clara.  Both were fascinating but we simply did not know enough.  But I also thought that an investment of 103 minutes - seemed a lot larger than minimalist.