A MOST WANTED MAN

As seen in

www.camrosecanadian.com

2014 has been a sad year for Hollywood, with the passing of legend Joan Rivers and arguably the funniest man ever in Robin Williams.  However, it was the loss of Phillip Seymour Hoffman that really hit 2014, first.  Hoffman, whose impressive résumé which ranges from hippie sidekick in Twister, to villain in Mission Impossible 3, not to mention performances in 2006’s Capote (where he won an Oscar playing the titular character) and his nomination in 2008’s Doubt.

A Most Wanted Man marks director Anton Corbijn’s attempt to make up for the lackluster effort in George Clooney’s The American.  Corbijn adapts the 2008 novel (of the same name) from author John le Carré, whose novels have been adapted as far back as 1965 with Martin Ritt’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold starring Richard Burton, and others like The Constant Gardener, The Tailor Of Panama, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

The movie follows Günther Bachmann (Hoffman), a German security agent whose agency takes interest when half-Chechen, half-Russian Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) arrives in Hamburg seeking sanctuary and to access the inheritance of his father’s illegally-earned fortune.  When unconfirmed reports peg him as an extremist, Bachmann must now try to hold back the CIA while he tries to establish Karpov’s motive and potential innocence.  Aided by a lawyer named Annabel, specializing in sanctuary (played by the always gorgeous Rachel McAdams from The Notebook and 2009’s Sherlock Holmes), it is a race against time that keeps you going all the way until the finale.

While Hoffman didn’t blow me away he still wasn’t bad, although his German accent made him somewhat unintelligible at times.  I think what really impressed me was the acting of Dobrygin, whose resume has never (until now) crossed into North America and an impressive supporting performance by Willem Dafoe.  McAdams was rather talented as well, but, I’ll be honest, every time she smiles I forget there is any wrong in the world.

The down side is the average movie goer will having problems sitting through this one as the build up goes on; much like the peeling of paint (I blame Corbijn).  However, if you hold on and see what it all builds up to, I find this flick worth very much the price of admission.  A must for fans of smart spy films (not the James Bond type).