AMERICAN ASSASSIN review

AMERICAN ASSASSIN

starring Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton and Sanaa Lathan

directed by Michael Cuesta

A review by Helen J. Reynolds

A young couple are holidaying in Spain, relaxing on a beach. Mitch (Dylan O'Brien) directs a home-made video on his phone pretending they're honeymooners. The dialogue is cute: his girl hits back that they're not married before diving into the water. It then turns into a proposal, and as your heart warms at this easy, happy, loved-up couple, it also starts to pitter-patter in anticipation. Something is going to go wrong...

The long, intimate opening catches you off guard. It's well-thought out, gives a clear, psychological profile to the main character and is very alert to the real fear of terrorism that can take place anywhere, at anytime with such devastating effects.

Middle-East terrorism is the main enemy of the movie (though certainly not the only one) and scenes of random killings are brutal to watch. This isn't like other assassin movies, where we play cat and mouse with the target. There's a sense of realism with each place.

It's very beautifully and very deliberately shot (the cinematography is utterly compelling) but there isn't that glossy feel to the sets as you tend to get with spy movies these days. Even a 5* hotel room feels accessible as the director has a focused way of filming so that he pulls the audience into the room and right into the moment. 


Mitch is not a particularly likeable character but he doesn't have to be. He's been through severe trauma and we can easily get onboard with his motivations for revenge. The CIA picks him up and packs him off to extreme special ops trainer Stan Hurley (the great Michael Keaton).

The story is fairly solid with only a few 'not-quite-sure-that's-believable' moments. But on the whole, it's engaging and exciting. Some scenes are skipped over (it's based on a book, so obviously there will be parts missing or reduced) but there's enough time to get a decent sense of the main players and to genuinely care about them. 

 A relevant, clever spy film with interesting characters. Vince Flynn was the author (now deceased) to this long chain of popular novels featuring Mitch Rapp. Hopefully the movie does as well as the books, as this has the makings of a very good franchise.

A combination of:

 Prisoners (2013)
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Homeland (2011-present)

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