Review of A Most Wanted Man (2014) by Nikolayg — 07 Nov 2014

I am convinced this movie received generally positive reviews for two reasons: Le Carre wrote the novel (and reviewers decades ago decided to love everything he produces regardless of the quality of his books; is he still coasting on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold after all this time?), and it came out shortly after the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman who stars in it. It certainly did not get positive reviews for the quality of the story, which is the single most lead footed, plodding, predictable spy story I have ever seen. I'm all for dialogue and I was glad to sit down for a spy story that would be free of the routine cliches of guns and disguises, poison pens, and so on. But I did not expect the story also to be devoid of complexity, devoid of depth of character (one of the things literary thrillers are supposed to have), devoid of surprise, and mostly devoid of suspense. After the first forty-five minutes or so I realized the movie wasn't going to go anywhere. I gave up on it half a hour before the end, but then watched the last half hour the next morning. Nothing much happened. It has about as much plot and character development in its two plus hours, as you'd expect in the first 20 minutes of any other movie.

Yes the acting was very good and it was fun to hear a Tom Waits song at the end over the credits. But without a story acting's got nothing to do. And sitting through a whole movie for a two minute song at the end, isn't my idea of a good time.