This was another On Demand film over the Thanksgiving break that we viewed on Saturday November 29th.
Based on the 2008 novel by John le Carre, directed by Anton Corbijn and boasting a solid cast including; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe and Rachel McAdams. Hoffman is Gunther, an espionage agent and in charge of a group that is developing intel in the Hamburg Muslim community. His group operates as part of a greater agency (that's never really mentioned but you get the idea that it's the German equivalent of the CIA). Gunther and his team are alerted to the presence of Issa Karpov, a Chechen national who the Russian suspect of having terrorist ties (despite the fact he was in their custody for a lengthy amount of time). Issa is taken in a Muslim family and gets put in touch with Annabel Richter (McAdams), an immigrant lawyer. Issa is in Germany illegally and needs Annabel's help retrieving a family fortune from a bank, a bank run by Tommy Brue (Dafoe).
Meanwhile, German intelligence officials and U.S. attache Martha Sullivan (Wright) begin to take an interest in Gunther's Karpov case. It turns out that Karpov is the son of a Russian general, via the raping of Issa's mother, who worked with Brue's father laundering money. The German officials want to bring Issa in but Gunther want to cultivate him as an asset and feels that bringing him in would leave them in a worse spot as he has his eye on a bigger prize, Muslim philanthropist, Dr. Abdullah. Abdullah is not an extremist and is very Western friendly except that he may be fronting money for Al Qaeda, but Gunther hasn't been able to put the pieces together.
Gunther manages to get everything in place, he's got Richter and Brue working for him. Issa doesn't want the money for his own use but gets convinced by Richter to donate the money to Dr. Abdullah so he can get it to Muslim charities. It's all going to go down at Brue's bank. They get the list of the charities and they all check out. When they deal is going down, Abdullah slips in a new charity, a shipping firm that will help get the aid to those who need. That's the link to Al Qaeda. Gunther has a plan in motion to bring Abdullah in and use him as an asset.
That plan falls apart as Sullivan and the official who was against Gunther ambush Gunther and capture both Issa and Abdullah. Gunther can only just walk away, dejected. He had been sold out by the Americans and you get the feeling this wasn't the first time.
This was pretty good modern day spy thriller. It moves a little quicker than le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and it's not as long. It's also not quite as intriguing as that film had a whole lot going on. The film gives a good portrayal (not that I would know) of how a person becomes an asset. Gunther is quick to point out to one informant that, he made the choice to inform and he was never forced. Which is true, only Annabel gets a strong arm treatment by being put into isolation for a brief period of time. Other than the redaction, she's never mistreated. She agrees to help Gunther when she's convinced that they're not after Issa.
The acting in this film is nothing short of excellent, even McAdams who I don't like all that much. Corbijn does a nice job with the pace of the film as it never really slowed down too much despite the lack of any real action. I remember seeing the trailer but it seems like this came and went really quickly. Which is too bad because this is a solid film.
No comments:
Post a Comment