A MOST WANTED MAN  3.0*** (3.5*** for its genre)

 

 

      Hollywood has off and on been enamored with the  novels of John  Le Carré and they have gained in popularity in this post 9/11 society of ours. The murky game of spies and dark government agencies is one Le Carre knows better than anybody, but the sometimes tedious realism of his writing doesn't always make for the greatest entertainment. Every now and then you wish a car would blow up or somebody would fire a rocket launcher or something. Much like the recent Le Carre screen adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Most Wanted Man “is another slow moving spy thriller with a great cast and a story that emphasizes facts, figures and mood .

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays  the role of Gunther Bachmann, a  German espionage operative located in Hamburg. Gunther is part of an ant-terror agency so secret, so deep in the woods nobody is sure whom they report to. They were created to operate on their own to detect and prevent any security threats in any way they see fit. Like many of Le Carre's most popular main characters, Gunther is a shrewd, calculating man who is smarter and tougher than his physical appearance would suggest. He's a man called upon to make the hard decisions because he always has.
When a battered and starving half-Chechen, half-Russian man secretly emerges out of nowhere in Hamburg seeking political asylum, it catches the attention of not only Gunther's agency, but the CIA (represented by Robin Wright) and other intelligence departments in Germany. Gunther's investigation into whether this man is truly who he says he is or perhaps a terrorist in disguise, is undermined at almost every turn by those who claim to be on his side. The situation becomes cloudier and more complex when a local shady banker ( William Defoe ) and a civil rights advocate (Rachel McAdams) become  involved,  

 

True to Le Carre,  Hoffman’s Gunther is disillusioned but driven and is so thoroughly mundane in his appearance, he comes off as a spy-world version of TV’s Columbo.  Drinking, smoking ( and this is constant chain smoking), grimacing and muttering in a thick German accent, Hoffman owns Gunther. To the miles-long list of reasons to lament the actor's death back in February is the realization that he makes a perfect Le Carré character: world-weary, moral and usually the smartest guy in the room.  Hoffman is absurdly great in the role.  He  manages to create one of the best characters of his whole career. Weary and slumped, disappearing into his baggy clothes and slickly combed-over hair, Hoffman's Gunther is a man who has largely given up but still badly wants to find something worth being invested in.  

 

A Most Wanted Man is the kind of thriller that James Bond/Jason Bourne audiences will probably hate and independent movie devotees might love. It requires forbearance i.e. a whole lot of patience and a  willingness to surrender to a very methodical pace that  slowly reveals the story. And while it boasts little in the way of physical action ( seeing Hoffman actually run through corridors is about it)  the film still manages to create a  tension  like the kind  you feel when you are close to completing a big jigsaw puzzle. It's a bleak film about nasty things happening to helpless people, but just exciting enough in the story it tells for it  to come off as compelling and not  too overly realistic.  

 

Clark