Release Date: February 13, 2009

(out of 4)

"The International" has the appearance of a thinking man's thriller. Lots of character undercurrent motives with subtle but cunning dialogue exchanges. In the outline, there is a network of evil weapons financiers who are subsidizing terror and war across the globe. Clive Owen, as Interpol Agent Louis Salinger, is the hero who sets out to avenge his colleague's death and to take down these executive bankers. Money is filtered from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul – this means lots of cool location hopping courtesy of aerial camerawork. Luckily, in New York, Agent Salinger gets assistance from a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney named Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts supplies beauty and additional intelligence).

In a movie with lots of talky dead-ends, the script suggests “Lord of War” rewritten by the guys who made “Syriana.” Whenever the dialogue does cut to the point, you wonder if there's another shade of truth underneath to what you just learned. Key clues are not visualized but are talked about – it makes you wish you walked into the theater with a connect-the-dots diagram, a spare notebook and a flashlight so you can review the plot points while watching the movie. Key characters get talked about when they are not part of the scene, and sheesh , there are so many characters. You get lost in a sea of names, tracking who belongs to what organization, and you can't wait for the next scene to cut to that character so you can be reminded of who they are. How about within a scene? It'd be great if they put on name tags “Good Guy!” or “Bad Guy!” just so you can remember who they represent!

Bad guys aplenty, many of them to more or lesser depths it's hard to tell, but Brian F. O'Byrne seethes impressively as a mysterious hitman – Clive Owen looks hard-bitten in his pursuit of this character. There's a good hour (yes, an hour or so that makes you halfway care) in “The International” where the film engages you in this cat-and-mouse hunt, but the extra layers upon layers becomes too much a burden. Too many things said, to too little perceptive avail. Too many characters, too many of them superfluous after the curtain falls. The one villain with a few perceptive shades is Armin Mueller-Stahl (“Avalon,” “Shine”) who expresses regret about weapons financiering, but also functions as a plot explanatory device. A character with two purposes and three-dimensions? Who'd of thought!

All of this must sound aggravating dense and incredibly vague. What you probably would like to know is about whether Clive Owen is tough and rugged, and whether or not he has chemistry with Naomi Watts, and whether there is any good action. Owen is a brainy action star who can be as believable as anyone since Harrison Ford in this kind of role. There are unfortunately no sparks between him and Naomi Watts. And some of the action is really good in that Tom Clancy-inspired way. There is a plausible assassination scene that is intermingled within the film (cue actor O'Byrne) where the telescope point-of-view shot aims at a keynote stage speaker, but the enthrall takes place in the aftermath havoc and subsequent investigation. Damn if it isn't spoiled by the hackneyed shoe print clue. The assassin should have worn a different make of shoe!

Behind the lens, European wunderkind Tom Tykwer (director of two masterpieces: “Run Lola Run” and “Perfume: A Story of a Murderer”) makes his American film debut. The film is not without style – the film makes good use of executive steel décor and lots of great above head camera angles on locations to suggest characters lost or unsettled in their surroundings. Tykwer has made a good-looking film but if wanted to achieve further success he should have stripped down the plot to more coherent essentials.

If the film's troubles is more than what it's worth then at least let's say Bravo! to Tykwer for staging the centerpiece gunfight scene. Yes, it's a shame that such a great gunfight scene is lost in an otherwise so-so movie. Not only is the gunfight scene take place in the unexpected locale of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, it is also the best dramatic use of the Guggenheim Museum in a film since Woody Allen's “Manhattan.” Ha-ha, I never thought there'd be a time where I'd ever mention Tom Tykwer and Woody Allen in the same movie review! But where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton got lost in philosophical bliss, Tykwer shatters the ceiling roof glass. Exclamation point deserved!