It’s often said about George Clooney that he’s an old-fashioned movie star, in the mold of Cary Grant, a personality so affable that audiences seem unconsciously predisposed to like him the moment he graces the screen. But in the opening sequence of The American, director Anton Corbijn is quick to make Clooney’s character, Jack, challenge just how much goodwill you’re willing to extend to him. In the wake of a casually cold-hearted act committed in the quiet snows of Sweden, Corbijn and Clooney ask the audience to empathize with the sort of man who isn’t allowed to have friends, because his profession dictates that they are expendable liabilities.