kyanberu

Director Ruben Ostland has followed up his 2014 Golden Globe nominee Force Majeure with Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square. The film is both a satire of the cultural elite of Stockholm and a sad commentary about the separation between individuals both within circles and between circles. The lead character, Christian (Claes Bang), is the curator of a museum of modern art that seeks to draw attention and donors through avant-garde exhibits and over-the-edge social media campaigns. The film follows Christian through a few weeks of his life when one of the hot new exhibits is "The Square", an actual square in the museum courtyard that is meant to be "a sanctuary of trust and caring." But rather than show trust and caring, the movie The Square raises a number of troubling questions: How thin is the veneer of civilization? Can political correctness substitute for empathy? Is art whatever a curator chooses to put in an art museum? And enveloping these questions is the separation of the circle of Stockholm's cultural elites from the City's homeless and immigrant population, as well as the separation of individuals within the City's cultural elite. One set piece in particular portrays the inability of the Stockholm's elite to communicate on a human level: It is Christian's meeting with Anne (Elisabeth Moss), a publicist, the day after a night of sex—and a bizarre argument over what to do with a used condom. In this scene Christian is totally unable to say the needed words about what had happened between them. (Anne, an American, comes across as much more able to relate to others than any of the Swedes in the movie.) Another memorable scene is the one in which a banquet for museum donors is interrupted when the performer (Terry Notary), playing an ape, goes out of control. The diners, who are initially frozen by their need for decorum, or perhaps by their need to display political correctness, ultimately go ape themselves. Perhaps not a total surprise since the same donor diners had earlier stampeded their way to a luncheon in a lighter scene. There are many sub-plots in the film—some satirizing interactions within Stockholm's upper class, others between classes— perhaps leaving some viewers displeased by the way the film jumps without warning from one set piece to another. Others may dislike long stretches of art-film inactivity in many of the episodes—something that explains why the movie lasts for 2 hours and 22 minutes. Nevertheless, The Square does capture the alienation of modern society, and does it with plenty of dark humor.

As already stated by several reviewers, anyone looking for an action thriller with a suspenseful chase scene, gunfight and clear gotcha surprise ending will be disappointed by The American. Instead, it is an exploration of the mind of an assassin played by George Clooney. The movie is set in sun-drenched mountain villages of the Abruzzo region of Italy and the scenes are further brightened by the appearances of Thekla Reuten and Violante Placido. But the focus of the movie is on Clooney as he deals with the dark demons in his mind. We know from the opening scene in Sweden that he has already become too closely involved with one woman, played by Irina Bjorkland, and is responsible for her death. He wants desperately to get out of the assassin business, but agrees to take one final assignment, oddly as weapons craftsman and supplier to a fellow assassin played by Thekla Reuten. But the plot is secondary. It is the mood that director Anton Corbijn sets that makes this movie. Clooney spends most of his time alone with his guilt and his fears. He is paranoid that anyone may be out to kill him--and some really are.

Although his job requires that he avoid making friends, he does make two--predictably with a prostitute and a priest. Both relationships have meaning. His lengthy sex scene with Violante Placido, a star in Italy where she has appeared on the cover of Playboy, will no doubt help to keep box office sales going long after potential audiences have learned that this is not your typical action thriller. But during the lovemaking scene the camera is mostly on Violante's face. When Clooney later says that she doesn't have to pretend; that he comes to her to take pleasure not to give pleasure, we know that he is lying; that he has in fact again broken a cardinal rule of his profession by falling for her. He is a man with too much capacity for feeling to survive in his profession.

His relationship with the priest is also telling. When the priest offers him an opportunity to confess, he is silent. Clooney chooses to remain in bondage to sin, even as he remains in bondage to his mysterious employer. And yet while passing up an opportunity to free himself from his demons, Clooney helps the priest to open up about a sin of his own, again showing that Clooney feels too deeply for a man in his profession.

And if we take the film as allegory, the ending is inevitable.