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| Layers upon layers in grey and vomit-yellow on the poster for Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man |
QUICK REVIEW:
Günther is a leader of an unofficial anti-terror unit in Hamburg, where the 9/11 plot was thought out, which German officials have vowed to never let happen again. Now a tortured, Chechen Muslim arrives with right to an inheritance of millions of euros. Meanwhile a prominent Muslim leader in town is under suspicion of financing terrorism.
Wanted Man is a very unsexy, down-toned, realistic spy movie, which will suit the tastes of the relatively small group of fans of realistic spy movies. One is reminded of other John le Carré adaptations like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and especially its earlier BBC miniseries version, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982) with A Most Wanted Man, where we can rejoice in a solid Carré-plot.
There truly isn't much James Bond about Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote (2005)), who looks like a ghost of a man here in his, sadly, last leading role; (he ended his life with a heroine overdose in February 2014.) He plays a disillusioned man terrifically, but with an eerie abandon.
Robin Wright (The Princess Bride (1987)), Rachel McAdams (About Time (2013)), Willem Dafoe (Antichrist (2009)) and the German actors are good as well.
I could have wished a titular introduction of Günther, our lead; because for a time I was wondering if he and the other German-accented Americans were supposed to be Germans, (they are), and that confusion wasn't necessary.
The film is very European in its morose aesthetics: Hamburg, Germany's in reality mundane, expensive, attractive trading hot-spot city, looks like a trashy, drunks- and sex-store-littered hole here.
A Most Wanted Man is a spy drama-thriller that offers intellectual suspense and raises difficult questions about anti-terrorism efforts.
It is directed by Dutch director Anton Corbijn, who feature-debuted with the fine music drama about the British punk band Joy Division, Control (2007). He has since made The American (2010) with George Clooney and will next release Life (2015), a drama about James Dean.
See Philip Seymour Hoffman looking eerily hopeless and beside himself on some stills from the movie here, just months before he ended his own life with drugs:
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 17.9 mil. $ so far
= Unknown
What do you think of A Most Wanted Man?
If you are a fan of realistic spy movies, did you enjoy this, and what other realistic spy movies are good?
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