Clive looked in the mirror and realised he needed to get down to Tony & Guy sharpish

Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Director: Tom Tykwer
Screenwriter: Eric Singer
Rating: 15

If there’s one thing the world hates, it’s a merchant banker. They sparked riots at the G20 summit, robbed us of Woolworths, and their name means a particularly rude word in Cockney rhyming slang.

However, if Tom Tykwer’s latest offering is to be believed, their ambitions are far loftier than merely robbing us of our homes and our favourite high street pick’n'mix chains: they want nothing less than global domination.

The International tells the story of Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) – a maverick Interpol agent who teams up with a New York district attorney (Naomi Watts) after one of their informants dies in mysterious circumstances during an investigation of an international investment bank.

The film soon outshines its pedestrian premise, escalating into a delightfully silly blur of corporate assassins, would be prime ministers who have a second career in arms dealership and evil bankers plot the downfall of the world, as any pretence of realism is abandoned at the opening reels.

Yet Singer’s sense of loopy fun jars with the film’s sombre tone. From the elegant shots of gleaming metal skylines, to the film’s disdain for action sequences, or romance of any kind – it all seems contrived to remind us that this is a “serious” film, about a serious issue, which is a shame, because the action scenes are when the film finally comes to life.

The Guggenheim gunfight is a particular standout. Owen lets his Uzi do the talking as bullets chomp through art, and goons bleed extravagantly and fall from ridiculous heights. Other stand-out moments include a tense car pursuit through the streets of Italy, and a fantastic scene where our heroes tail an assassin with a limp.

The seven-ten split between seriousness and silliness might have worked with a strong cast of characters to close up the gap between tone and plot. However, the leads seem little more than expositional robots – spitting out dialogue at machine gun speeds without a single knowing wink or cocked eyebrow to let us know they’re human, or having any fun at all.

While this is only to be expected of the malign bankers, Owen’s “maverick anti-hero” Salinger fares badly – spending the entire film huffily referring everyone he meets to the kernel of characterisation hidden in his personnel file, instead of actually emoting. Meanwhile, Watts, who proved herself in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and King Kong, is reduced to a supporting character and given precious little to work with she disappears from the film as soon as her role is complete.

In many ways, The International feels like two films – one a silly, extravagant action thriller and the other a serious meditation on the evils of the banking system. Either would have been preferable to the sub-prime mishmash of leaden drama and occasional wild action that Tykwer has patched together.

Special features: Trailers, commentary with director Tom Tykwer and writer Eric Singer, extended scenes, making of documentary, Architecture of The International and Shooting at the Guggenheim featurettes

The International is out 6th July on DVD and Blu-ray

By Philip Reynolds