A Most Wanted Man

When I first saw the title of this movie I thought it was going to be a prequel to PTA's Boogie Nights, with its focus mainly being on Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman's character) and the discovery of his love for male on male porn. But sadly, or thankfully depending on your perspective, it just turned out to be another spy "thriller" from John le Carre'. I'm sure his books are great but they should probably just remain books; not all books can be adapted for the screen. Tinker Tailor, Constant Gardener, and Tailor of Panama were all solid films but man they were boring as hell! So knowing his history, all I could hope for with this film is that they somehow convinced Rachel McAdams that her career was coming to an end and that she needed to do something drastic like get naked to revive it. And who knows, maybe have Willem Dafoe speak with a German accent; that's always fun. Well I soon learned that neither of these happened, so I considered getting drunk before going to see it but that didn't happen either. For the record, Dafoe did have a German accent but it wasn't even close to being as fresh as the one he had in Life Aquatic.

So this spy adventure takes place in Hamburg, Germany; a port city that used to openly welcome any and everyone to its city, that is until the events of 2001 happened in New York. Mahamed Atta planned the attacks here and ever since, Germany's government and spy agencies main focus is on terrorist activity that takes place within the city, according to le Carre's book anyway. Well one day a Chechen Muslim named Issa Karpov illegally immigrates to Germany in hopes to find asylum there, so that he does not have to return to his homeland Russia where he was beaten and tortured. Gunther Bachmann (Hoffman) and his team immediately notice that he is in the city and decide to follow him around to see who he contacts and what his intentions are. They are in it to play the long game and to get as deep into the terrorist network as possible, which is contrary to what the other agencies in Germany and the rest of the world want to do. They only want to arrest him as quickly as possible and garner as much publicity as they can for the arrest.

Now I realize that in the real world, what le Carre' presents as spy activity is probably a lot closer to the truth than what we see in the Bourne or Bond movies, but damn I like explosions and gun fights. I don't want to see people sit around and watch surveillance cameras while having intense discussions for 90% of the movie! I will however give le Carre' credit for this, the interactions that take place in this movie are highly engaging and because of that this was probably my favorite movie of his so far. It's two hours long and most of it involves spies outsmarting each other, their targets, and their informants, with a chase scene or two thrown in for good measure.

The acting by Hoffman and McAdams is also what drives this movie. It's amazing how seamlessly Hoffman can morph into a character and how he can tell you so much about him with the little subtleties he brings to his performance. He adds in little throw away jokes, makes you focus on the way he walks, and even makes you notice his uncomfortable mannerisms when he's in the presence of someone of authority or someone he doesn't trust; all keeping the director from having to add in a flashback scene to give you some background on the character. That's not a quality that should be casually overlooked as most of the actors in Hollywood right now don't posses this ability.

In the end I liked this movie but you walk out wanting more and wishing that more had happened; which I know is the point and overall theme of this film but that doesn't mean I cant be mad about it. I begrudgingly give it a rating of FRESH!