BrockTalk

I could easily review this movie with two words: slow and boring. If that's all you want to know, then great, you can stop reading now, but seeing as this is a review I should do it properly and explain why I beilieve the movie to be slow and boring, so please, by all means, read on.

The plot is this: The Swedes are out to kill George Clooney for unknown reasons, but more than likely it has somethind to do with  the fact that he is a killer himself. He is an expert craftsman when it comes to the art of making guns, and his line of work has left him exhausted, alone, and yearning to find love. Sounds interesting, right? Not even close. You will spend the majority of your two hours watching Clooney do push-ups, sitting at a cafe table alone sipping coffee, walking deserted streets while looking around apprehensively, or spending time with a local prostitute who has a heart of gold a la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. There is very little dialog in the movie, and when there is, it is rarely delivered from Clooney. Watching this movie was like watching and waiting for a pot of water to boil, except the pay off in this movie is proabably less satisfying than the climax of the water finally coming to a boil. Yeah, seriously.

While the plot and pacing of the film are its' major setbacks, it must be said that the director did shoot a beautiful movie. Sadly, that alone cannot save the film ,unless of course you enjoy watching two hours worth of compositionly sound pictures of George Clooney. Listen, I get and understand that the director was trying to convey a sense of  the life of this character, and how alone this chosen life has made him, but this has been done before and with much greater effect. Cast Away starring Tom Hanks comes to mind.. In fact, that movie probably had less dialog than this one, but it was a heck of a lot more interesting to watch. As a lover of film, I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed many movies that are considered artsy, but I am a very strong believer that in the end, the single most important element of a movie is the story, and delivering that story in a way that holds the viewer's attention.This story simmers for far too long and never comes to a boil.