A difficult film to review since I’m a big fan of the John Le Carre spy novel its based on. Like most of Le Carre’s work, it’s not really a spy thriller (the action usually comes only at the very end), and works more as literary fiction than Jason Bourne.
The plot is about a mysterious Muslim who shows up in Hamburg, Germany and gets help from a noble immigration lawyer (Rachel McAdams), and a less-than-noble banker (Willem Dafoe, ambiguous as always). This attracts the attention of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Gunter Bachmann, a sly-but-rumpled German spymaster, but can he get to the bottom of things before his more military-minded colleagues or Robin Wright’s American spy take over the case?
What Works: This is Hoffman’s last leading role, and his dazzlingly subtle range is well on display here. His Bachmann is cagey, and understandably guarded with his information. Like most of Le Carre’s work, the real duels are between spies that are supposed to be on the same side, and he exposes that even spy agencies are really just competing companies with frenemy co-workers that want that corner office more than doing great spy work. [Le Carre actually was in British intelligence, and his work is realistic office rivalries more than James Bond.] This is a spy drama—not a thriller—and has a plot that’s really more about the competing spy philosophies of Old Intelligence (recruit sources, set up a human network, do actual intelligence work) vs. the Bush Doctrine of shoot first, ask questions later. That may not be as riveting as some people would like, but Hoffman’s character stands in for the soul of intelligence gathering that’s gradually being lost. On an eerie undercurrent, you can almost feel Hoffman’s own frustrations with how his life turned out bubbling up under his performance.
What Doesn’t: Rachel McAdams is woefully miscast as a German civil rights lawyer. Jessica Chastain was in the running for this part, and you can’t help but feel she would have been much better suited for it. Also, some of the plot dynamics make a lot more sense in the book, and the film may be confusing if you haven’t read it. Also in the book, the focus really was more on the mysterious immigrant than Bachmann’s spy, and while I do understand that it’s smart to put Hoffman front and center, you do lose some sense of who the immigrant really is. It’s explained, but you never get to know much about him before it is.
What I Would Have Done Differently: This is a good adaptation, but not a flawless one. Would I watch this movie if I hadn’t read the book? Yes, but maybe read the book first.