The American

Jack is a skilled assassin who works alone and stays constantly on the move. After an assignment in Sweden goes wrong, he tells his contact that his next job will be his last. That job sends him to a remote village in Italy's Abruzzo mountains, where he is meant to lie low and wait for further instructions. Instead of keeping to himself, he forms an unexpected friendship with the local priest and begins a relationship with Clara, a woman he meets in town. The quieter his life becomes, the more his professional caution slips, leaving a man who has spent years in the shadows increasingly exposed.

Anton Corbijn directed the film, which followed his debut Control and the short Linear in his filmography. Rowan Joffe wrote the screenplay, and George Clooney produced through Smoke House Pictures and stars as Jack, alongside Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli, Johan Leysen and Irina Björklund. Made for about 20 million dollars, it took roughly 68 million worldwide, a solid return for a modestly budgeted thriller.

Audiences are mixed on it: on IMDb it holds 6.3 from around 106,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 from about 1,600. A critics' rating of 6.5 from 222 reviews puts professional opinion slightly above the audience scores. The film sits between Corbijn's early work and later features such as A Most Wanted Man and Life.