A Most Wanted Man

Espionage thrillers always make great fodder for a film. We've seen it many times with a plethora of Tom Clancy based films, John Forsythe based films and now we have one of several films based on a John le Carre novel in the form of "A Most Wanted Man".

When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant, Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) turns up in Hamburg's Islamic community, laying claim to his father's ill gotten fortune, he realizes he needs asylum which he seeks through attorney Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams). Both German and US security agencies take a close interest as the clock ticks down. German security agent Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and US security agent Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright) at first butt heads, but finally work out their differences as the stakes rise. The race is on to establish this most wanted man's true identity-- oppressed victim or destruction-bent extremist? This is a contemporary, cerebral tale of intrigue, love, rivalry and politics that is fused with tension right through to its last heart-stopping scene.

Others to round out the cast are Willem Dafoe as Tommy Brue, the banker intricately involved, Homayoun Ershadi as Abdullah, Nina Ross as Irna Frey, Gunther's assistant, Daniel Bruhl as Maximilian, Herbert Gronemeyer as Michael Axelrod, Mehdi Dehbi as Jamal, Rainer Bock as Dieter Mohr, Kostja Ullmann as Rasheed, Martin Wuttke as The Admiral, Vicky Krieps as Niki, Imke Buchel as Frau Elli, Bernhard Schutz as Otto Keller and Franz Hartwig as Karl.

This was directed by relative newcomer to feature films, Anton Corbijn ("Control" '07, "The American" '10) plus many video documentaries and shorts. This is not to say that he isn't talented in the director's chair--on the contrary, he was able to encourage his actors expressly well in conveying the true depth and complexities these characters had. Of course when you have Hoffman the lead, one has to look good considering the immense talent of Hoffman. Even though this was based on a novel by the incomparable John le Carre, Andrew Bovell's script was treated in a slightly slow manner. It was also a bit choppy in some places as well, otherwise it truly picked up approximately a third of the way through, and then soared. Then I felt I received the film I was expecting at that point. It is extremely difficult to botch this story considering it is based on a novel by Carre ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" '65, "The Tailor of Panama" '01, The Constant Gardner" '05, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" '11), so again, how could Bovell go totally wrong? This guy has potential and would like to see more work from him which I believe is inevitable.

As mentioned above, once this yarn gets off the ground, it takes you on a roller coaster ride that is global in every sense of the word. The question is: who can you trust in this which begs another question: who's the good guys and visa versa?

Out of 4 Stars: 3                              Rated: R                             122mins.