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When I received a request by a priest to review a film, “The Human Experience,” I was less than enthused. As a columnist for the New York Sun, my mail box was always filled with similar requests which I seldom had time to address although those received from Moving Picture Institute in Tribeca proved quite interesting and I eventually wrote columns about their features. “Mine Your Own Business: The Dark Side of Environmentalism, “written and directed by Phelim McAleer was a favorite and McAleer became Al Gore’s public nemesis for challenging him at forums about global warming.

This being the start of the Christmas season, however, I was intrigued by the priest’s invite when he told me the documentary was made by young residents of St. Francis House, a group home for troubled youth founded by Father Benedict Groeschel. Grassroots Films began here at the home when producer Joe Campo had the residents take up the art of filmmaking. After a few successful short films, the young men decided to live on the streets of New York City to learn about the homeless community. From there the film developed with opportunities to visit areas around the world to discover how our humanity transcends our environment. One of these treks includes a visit to a leper colony in Ghana; another to dying AIDS victims in Africa.

Have you ever watched a film that you can’t get out of your mind? The image of the lepers smiling and telling the men that they are happy because they have come to visit them and they are not afraid to touch them is hard to forget.  Then too, I don’t think I will think of the homeless on the streets of New York in the same way I had before viewing this remarkable film.

One would think this would be a depressing experience but instead I found it to be inspiring and an affirmation of what binds all of us around the world-our humanity.

 The DVD is on sale at www.grassrootsfilms.com and is a perfect Christmas gift for those on your list who need to be reminded of that message.

Near the beginning of the film, we see Jack with a female companion in a cabin. On a walk, the couple is attacked by a lone shooter. Jack’s companion is shocked to discover that he is carrying a weapon. This woman may be in a relationship with Jack but she doesn’t know who Jack really is or what he is capable of. Neither does the audience.

Shortly thereafter, Jack is sent on a mission in a small Italian village. He moves into the area and is tasked with building a gun for a female customer. That customer knows exactly what she is looking for in and asks Jack to meet her specific requirements. While in the village, Jack befriends a kind-hearted priest and a caring prostitute named Clara. Even as he spends much of his time looking over his shoulder for assassins targeting him, Jack forms relationships with both of these kind individuals.

Even when they first meet, the priest seems to know that Jack is not the straight-laced photographer that he pretends to be. Seeing through the empty façade, the priest tries to steer Jack in a better direction in life, a direction that does not require as much secrecy. But Jack is committed to his job. Clara and the priest do not know what Jack does but they both know that he isn’t being completely honest with them.

Ultimately, “The American” is a character study. Much of the film’s plot is ambiguous and the dialogue is often sparse. In many scenes, people only say the words that they need to say to move the story forward. Nothing else. There is a knowing restraint in the way they speak to each other.

Jack himself is a man of restraint. He is methodical and meticulous in the way he is able to construct weapons and the way he exercises. He is a man with a sense of purpose but not a sense of pride. He is also a hunted man and he knows it. His paranoia is palpable when he walks down the street.

In a lesser actor’s hands, this movie could have easily fallen apart. However, George Clooney really does a fine job. ”The America” is all about Clooney’s character and Clooney is able to convey his emotions in subtle but distinctive ways. For the best example of this, watch Clooney’s facial expressions during the end of the film. Even without saying a word, his face tells the audience what is happening.

In the past, Clooney has made several films about cocky and complacent characters. In this film, he is neither. He has the skills of a well-trained assassin but he can’t tell anyone about those skills. All he can do is complete the  jobs that are assigned to him. Clooney’s controlled performance will likely be recognized during the awards season.

One of the most interesting and debatable elements of the film is how ambiguous the plot sometimes is. Much of the plot is not explained in detail and at the end of the film, the audience is left with a lot of questions.  Even though some may not like how open to interpretation this film is, I really enjoyed its ambiguity. We, like Jack on his assignment, know as much as we need to know.

Overall, I really enjoyed “The American.” It is a slow-paced character study about a lonely assassin trying to complete his last assignment while being pursued. Even though “The American” may not be as exciting as other films about assassins, it is a really well-done movie strengthened by a strong lead performance.

The whys and hows of Jack and his situation are never fully explained because they’re not important. Death is his business and therefore it’s understood his cover must be protected even at the price of his own soul. And so he leaves the country, covers his tracks (even from his handler), and travels to a quaint small town in Italy where he hopes to hide in plain sight from those lethal Swedes and complete the kind of job where, this time, he won’t have to pull the trigger. His new commission is to craft a particularly nasty tool of the trade for a female assassin as intriguing and unknowable as she is beautiful.

And yes, this will be Jack’s last job before he gets out for good. 

But you already knew that.

You would think a seasoned killer experienced enough to survive until his hair went gray would choose a better place to lie low than a small village where he conspicuously stands out – and then some — as the sole American. An aging, local priest fingers him as such immediately.  The only explanation for this counter-intuitive decision appears to be to satisfy the cinematographer, because the old-world setting nestled into a mountainside complete with winding cobblestone streets is truly lovely to look at.

Like Clooney’s soul-weary killer, the friendly and wizened priest is another well-worn archetype in this well-worn genre of last-job-before-I-get-out-forever assassin films. And soon you’ll add one more archetype, a breathtakingly beautiful hooker with a heart of gold who doesn’t look a moment hardened by her chosen profession and who, naturally, sees something worthwhile in Jack no one else does, including us. But these are archetypes for a reason, they work, and up to a certain point “The American,” through its own quiet rhythm and somber tone, also works.

Anyone looking for a thriller will be quickly disappointed. Director Anron Corbijn isn’t interested in action. At all. As a matter of fact, Jack’s pursuers are as easy to kill as red-shirted “Star Trek” crewmen. This is a mood and character piece experimenting with silence and stillness in the hopes of making large the small moments, movements and gestures that come from a character too emotionally isolated and permanently on guard to offer up anything else.  Chatter and exposition and back-story would only betray the essence of this character, which means that it’s up to Clooney fill in the pieces using only his screen presence. Thanks to his first truly outstanding and Oscar-worthy performance, Clooney not only accomplishes this, he also draws us in wanting to know more. Who is this man? What made him who he is?  Will he redeem himself?

Unfortunately, it’s here where the story finally collapses.

Okay, so there’s nothing cinematically subtle about a fallen man at a crossroads in his life and at the same time befriended by the extremes of priest and prostitute. But that doesn’t mean the idea at work there can’t be interesting. The problem is that like the rest of the thematic track you’re deceived into believing the film is laying, it’s all a cheat. Not a single thematic element goes anywhere or even attempts to assume any kind of meaning. Jack might be handsome, worldly and refined, but he also happens to be a sociopath. To root for him, to want Jack to become Edward and get out from under the sins of his past, we have to see something worthy of redemption.  But we don’t, and still the film roots for him, which is especially obvious in the melodramatic climax.

“The American” dares to burden itself (and us) with the heavy symbolism of priest, prostitute, and butterfly, not to mention Jack’s unforgivable crime, but then doesn’t have the courage to deliver on what it means – other than (snore) the futility of it all. This makes for a numbing third act and turns the hushed moments and clipped dialogue and lingering stares into something worse than pretense. Slowly, what once drew you in devolves into cold disappointment and watch-checking tedium — at least until the credits roll, at which point you’re completely numb.

No matter how good the acting, lovely the locations, pretty the cinematography or pregnant the pauses; no matter how much you might tart something up with the whiff of self-important existentialism, just as black is the absence of color, indifference is not a theme — it’s the absence of theme. Nihilism is not art. Nihilism is the absence of art. Which isn’t to say that this subdued and self-consciously quiet examination of the barren existence of an aging hit man tired of looking over his shoulder is without merit. What the film is without, however, is a point – which appears to be the point, which means that we have here is a deliberate act of artistic cowardice.

The aliens are called “visitors,” shortened to “Vs,” thus the title of the program. They appear over major cities in large hovering spaceships that project messages in the local language. More than just the classic we-come-in-peace message, the messages say, “We’re here to help you.”

The opening episode makes it very clear, however, that they are not here to help. It turns out the Vs have planted many of their kind, who look human, prior to their dramatic arrival in spaceships. The alien plants have done their best to foul up life on earth in order to encourage a hunger for “change” (salvation). The Chicago Tribune draws a parallel to the Obama administration but, while many believe President Obama was not born in the United States, it’s unlikely he was born on another planet. Even so, it’s interesting that the evil aliens offer “universal health care” to all people. Thus, the first episode clearly seems to be saying that President Obama’s health care proposals, now making their way through the U.S. Congress, are a false hope that will lead to tyranny and slavery.

The initial episode does a good job of setting up several threads to keep audiences interested. A young priest bucks the judgment of the Vatican that the Vs were sent by God to help. He warns his congregation to be wary. An FBI agent uncovers the truth about the planted V cell groups even while her son signs up to be a stooge for the Vs. A news anchorman compromises and is used by the Vs for propaganda purposes. Finally, a V plant turns out to be a renegade V opposing the V leadership’s plans.

The production quality here is high for television, and the acting is excellent. There is moderate violence in a battle between the Vs and an underground resistance. However, unlike “Flash-Forward,” “V” is not tainted by babysitters sleeping with their boyfriends and the threat of a family falling apart due to infidelity. The potential exists for this program to be truly outstanding, but, as with many other series, it’s difficult to say if it will stray into murky waters down the road.

The theme of being wary of false saviors is very biblical as well as politically and culturally astute (see my book co-written with legendary entertainer Pat Boone, “The Culture-Wise Family”). Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

This is a message Americans really need to consider, not just in regard to big government but also such things as environmentalism and the humanism so prevalent in our government-run public schools. All the isms claiming to save you from belief in a “repressive” God promise freedom but often lead to bondage instead. Real freedom is freedom from sin. That can only be provided by the world’s true Savior, Jesus Christ.

“V” could actually go in that direction, but will it? We shall see.