Review of A Most Wanted Man (2014) by John J — 07 Dec 2014

It took just a shave over 2 hrs for director Anton Corbijn to make the "no duh" statement that not all Muslims are terrorists. I'm not sure who Corbijn thinks the audience for that message is . . . unless it's Muslims who think they're misunderstood and he wants to reassure them that we "get it." Somehow, I don't think that's what Corbijn was going for. Worse still is the conflation of Dr. Abdullah's support of terrorist groups with the ordinary shortcomings human nature. "Every good man has a little bad in him," is Hoffman's explanation for how Abdullah, apparently a genuinely pious man, can also fund terrorism. I hate to break it to the poor deluded director, but truly pious individuals would revolt at the thought of funding people who strap bombs to children and the mentally disabled to carryout suicide missions in shopping malls - often frequented by mothers with children and teenagers. Or maybe Dr. Abdullah is careful to only fund more "reasonable" terrorist group.

Other than those massive piles of claptrap, the movie was quite good. Very strong performances from Hoffman and the rest of the cast. Robin Wright was particularly good with relatively few scenes. The movie also had great realism. It's hard to make a spy movie these days without at least a few scenes that take the audience out of the moment with some cartoonish embellishment.

Seems like an terrible waste of acting talent all for that.

Akings of a great espionage movie. Fine performances by the cast - particularly Hoffman (naturally) and Wright (big mark with relatively few scenes).