'International' villain hits close to home

Everyone is a suspect and the scenery is gorgeous as we go globe-trotting with Clive Owen, the man who was almost James Bond, in "The International."

With a plot that actually makes sense (if you're willing to stick with it), this is a throwback to the old-fashioned spy yarns of yesteryear - such as Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in "The Ipcress File" (1965) or the more convoluted "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1965) with Richard Burton. This, too, is an international suspenser that asks its audiences to take it seriously.

Owen, who looks more and more like a real movie star with each outing, plays Louis Salinger, a loner who is determined (make that obsessed) to bring down IBBC, an all-powerful bank in Luxembourg. Formerly with Scotland Yard and now with Interpol (making him the international kind of cop), he has the goods on the bank's money-laundering operations involving terrorists. The only trouble is that no one will believe him. In fact, it seems every powerful person in the world is in cahoots with the crooked bank. The movie is timely with its bank villain; not since the heyday of Bonnie and Clyde have banks been so unpopular.

Salinger, on the run even from his own employer, is aided only by a New York district attorney played by Naomi Watts, the Australian actress who is more often than not overrated.

It seems her only purpose in this movie is to fulfill the need for a blonde running partner. She often looks as if she's desperate for something, anything to do.

Has anyone ever wondered who foots the bill for loners who buck their employers and travel around the world? Could any of us take a year off to become a maverick loner and expose an international bank? Only in the movies.

"The International" is stylish if leisurely paced. It's afflicted with a bit of the usual mumbo jumbo about agents and counter-agents, but all the facts are there if you listen carefully. Just as we're about to write it off as a pretty good spy yarn that won't attract audiences, we remember "The Bourne Identity," the series that gave hope that audiences will make smart movies into hits. This one isn't that smart, or nearly that fast, but it serves.

Director Tom Tykwer became the sensational new German discovery a decade ago thanks to the frantic editing of "Run, Lola, Run," about a woman constantly on the run in an effort to raise money to save her lover. Tykwer still knows how to handle a camera. This film is distinguished by the breathtaking overhead shots of the world's cities. It's a terrific world tour, and at bargain-basement rates. We go from Milan to Istanbul, New York and Lyon, France.

Behind it all is a plot that rings with real-life threat. The banks are above the law - not controlled by any one country. More than cash, they are interested in increasing the debt of their targets. Whoa! Alert time. Haven't we heard quite a lot about debt lately? Is it time to circle the wagons? Or is it too late?

To complete the ominous quality supplied by the music, there's actor Armin Mueller-Stahl. He is always, but always, up to no good.

There is, just in time, a great action shoot-out set at New York's famed Guggenheim Museum. The Frank Lloyd Wright curving ramps of the museum have always made me wonder whether there is any way up or down without walking the ramp. Apparently not, because there is a huge shoot-out by those trying to exit. This is a 14-minute action scene involving museum mayhem. (To the relief of museum lovers, it was actually shot on a set in a Berlin railway station.)

For the restless, there is also a lively political assassination sequence.

The big action scene may be enough to keep the popcorn crowd satisfied, and this movie also can be embraced by folks who are willing to think - a little.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com