Director: Anton Corbjin
Date: 29 June 2017
jamesintexas rating: ***1/2
My memory of this film is that it is world-weary, heavy, thick with plot and character, and it is the kind of thing that is right up my alley. James Bond-esque, but then decidedly not very James Bond-esque, A Most Wanted Man features one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last performances, and he is just great here. Based on a John le Carre novel, which means to me that it will feature the less glamorous but fully essential minutia of spycraft, Gunther (Hoffman), the head of German spying in Hamburg, finds himself close to locating and bringing in Chechan immigrant Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) who would be a key asset in the War on Terror. The swirling politics and geopolitics surrounding capturing Karpov and what he represents gives glimpses into both refugee advocacy and activism and cutthroat, utilitarian politicians, represented by both Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright. As a fan of this genre in film and in literature, A Most Wanted Man did not disappoint in its thoughtfulness, its calibration of storytelling, and its explosive ending with its vertiginous powerlessness. Hoffman's work here is spectacular, and his choices reveal Gunther to be both haunted and idealistic, and damned either way because of forces greater than he can fathom.
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