David Farnor | On 05, Oct 2009

Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts
Certificate: 15

Banks are evil. That’s the message behind Tom Tykwer’s tense thriller. But the most of evil of all the banks? Why, that’d be those at the IBBC (International Bank of Business and Credit), specifically Jonas Skarssen (Thomsen) and Wilhelm Wexler (Mueller-Stahl). Even their names sound like Bond villains.

Sure enough, they are indeed up to villainous antics, conspiring to control weapons, governments and debt everywhere. Meeting in Berlin, Istanbul, Milan and New York, these sinister suits are followed across the globe by one man: Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Owen). And one woman: Assistant DA Eleanor Whitman (Watts).

After the daylight murder of his partner, Salinger is determined to see justice done. Cue stubble, sleep deprivation and lots of serious facial expressions. But even when the plot seems very predictable, Tykwer’s story never fails to entertain. Expecting some one-liners? Or a spot of romance? Eric Singer’s intelligent script is having none of it. Clive Owen and Naomi Watts carry out their mission with compellingly straight faces. The job is simple: weed out the rich guys and take them down. With all the clinical efficiency of, well, Interpol chasing down dodgy finance.

The result is a slickly shot thriller, with lots of shiny glass buildings, that keeps its pace up despite a comparative lack of set pieces. That is, until the end of the film, when the dialogue-driven movie hands the keys over to a cracking shootout in the Guggenheim – windows shattering, the public fleeing, Salinger shoots his way out of a bloodbath with Bond-like ruthlessness. If anything, it’s better than a lot of Bond films. A topical take on the world’s economy, held together by a fractured male lead? This is what Quantum of Solace wanted to be.

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