An assassin on a final assignment in Fuerteventura, to kill a man he has never met. When his target is delayed, he finds himself drawn to the island, people and a ghostly shipwreck.
Instead of following protocol he stays. But when the target returns, the world has shifted. Before everything was simple, now nothing is.
American Star" is an art house variant of the familiar story of an old hitman facing his mortality while doing what might be his last job.
Filmed on the gobsmackingly gorgeous Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, it takes a soft-spoken, slowed-down contemplative approach to the material, omitting things whenever it can, rarely depicting any situation in the obvious way, and anchoring itself to a lead performance by Ian McShane that's a great example of how to take a reactive, at times silent character and make his thoughts and emotions legible to the viewer.
It's all in the face, especially the eyes.
There are are several long closeups of McShane in this film where you feel every feeling as it happens.
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