Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Brühl Homayoun Ershadi, Mehdi Dehbi, Nina Hoss, Vicky Krieps, Kostja Ullmann, Franz Hartwig, Martin Wuttke, Vedet Erincin, Rainer Brook, Derya Alabora, Tamir Yigit, Herbert Grönemeyer, Georg Ebinal, Bernhard Schütz, Jessica Joffe, Ursina Lardi, Corinna Kropiunig, Max Volkert Martens, Uwe Dag Berlin, René Lay.
There is surely no doubt that John le Carré is one of the finest writers to ever have sat at the typewriter and penned what is considered the classic spy novel. Of that statement you only have to read his books to understand what it meant by scrutinising the facts he lays out before you, that the world of the spy is one that is built up over time, of confidence and gaining trust to be able to catch the even bigger fish on offer. Not the world inhabited by the likes of the Mission Impossible films, of television programmes such as Spooks, despite it being a wonderful piece of writing at times, and almost every single spy film that has come forth in the last 20 years in which seems to believe that gadgets and spectacular stunts are truly the way forward.
A Most Wanted Man, written by John le Carré and adapted by Andrew Bovell, is near the quality in which Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy captivated cinema audiences a couple of years ago. It is the slow boil, the set-up, only seeing the facts from one particular view point and not from every single possible high definition angle with more quick change disguises than a member of the Government could achieve when asked questions that threaten his poll standing.
For perhaps modern audiences, those under a certain age who aren’t used to such techniques as the slow burner, of a film not running as fast as an Olympic sprinter having his running shoes taken away, there will be moments in which they will be wishing for the action to at least pick up beyond what is on offer. It is the lack of scrutiny to the unspoken dialogue that they will miss between the major actors in the film though that will be biggest loser should they get their wish.
The opening of the film is one that could be seen as perhaps the biggest contentious bone offered for a while to cinema audiences with references to Mohammed Akhtar and the day in which America came under attack in 2001. Take that moment aside and the film could be seen in two ways, one a great backdrop to the current and in many ways baffling behaviour of some governments in which they are far too easily ready to paint Muslims and Islam as the world’s bad guy or secondly as a profound reason in which to atone for their own mistakes that led to September 11th 2001. Whichever way the film is taken by the cinema goer, it could be seen as a despondent indictment in which propaganda is filtered out to the masses.
In a film in which sees one of the final on screen performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman, it is Grigoriy Dobrygin as Issa Karpov, a rather tremendous Robin Wright as the shady C.I.A. operative and Willem Dafoe that steals the film above Hoffman’s Günther Bachmann. It is a shame that Philip Seymour Hoffman was so overwhelmed by outstanding talent in the film but completely understandable that in Le Carré’s mind, the good guy with the dubious association will always be beaten by the bad operative with dubious intentions that would be welcomed by the ill-informed public. One out to catch the bigger prize with the softly, softly method taking on the brick wall of Government control and state sanctioned diplomacy.
A Most Wanted Man is the one that can offer more than he realises, his price is unknown and the danger he represents untold, yet all would give the world in which to have him inside the tent rather that outside kicking at the poles and putting out the fire.
Ian D. Hall