The International is one bleak film. Tom Tykwer is an exceptional director, and this film proves it. The movie's greatest benefactor is it's script and Tykwer himself. First off, the script provides us with two interesting things; the main character is not a regular secret agent who kicks all sorts of arse in any given situation. Instead Clive Owen's agent is essentially a man who's been through too many ups and downs during his life and was never that good at anything. He isn't particularily excelsior at his job as an Interpol agent; in the very first scene, he accidentally smashes his face against the passenger mirror of an incoming car. There's plenty more of scenes with failures comparable to this, even though they're sometimes a far cry from being physical abuse. The script and Tykwer understand that failures like these, if played with even slight humour or if they're portrayed too much, will make the character a bumbling buffoon instead of someone to take seriously. So they don't overdo it. Owen's character is enough of a failure for us to believe him as a human being, and it's a very refreshing thing in a modern agent film where "humanisation" of the main characters usually mean that when he gets shot he limps for the rest of the film.

The other big advantage that comes from the script is the bleakness of it all. Obviously, the world we live in, from a global perspective, is very depressing and there's not much an individual can do about it. That's that The International is all about. It's about the individual's inability to affect the globe. Tykwer, and the script, make this a very hard fact throughout the film and it affects the viewer in a positively depressing way. The story of this movie differentiates itself from the bulk of political thrillers, because this one feels by all means like a realistic film from it's beginning to the end. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. I've always appreciated realistic portrayals of humans and this world, and The International excels at it.

Also worth noting is that Tom Tykwer is a superb cinematographer and every shot in this film is beautiful. The man is a modern poet, making beauty from the pen which's ink is the climate of our world; beat-up cars, white motionless plaster and shiny skyscrapers turn into absolutely splendid visuals in The International because of his expertise. He never overmines the events with his visuals either, a sign of a very good director. Be on the lookout for whatever he makes in the future, I promise you, you won't be dissapointed. I sure wasn't with this one.