Review of A Most Wanted Man (2014) by Viet Phuong N — 01 Nov 2014

The ending is really, really good, not in term of twist-and-turn but in term of emotional climax, which was enhanced by the depressive yet effective performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose appearance and expression in this film remind me of his memorable role in "Magnolia" - an "innocent" character in a mist of human cruelty and tragedy.

The only difference is that in "Magnolia", Hoffman's character was only an innocent "observer" of numerous human tragedies around him, but in this film, he is an "innocent" victim (yes, his character should be considered innocent despite being entitled a counterspy-master) of the human tragedies around him.

As the film goes on, we can feel the increasing hopelessness in Hoffman's eyes - it seems that he understands about the risks of being betrayed by his own kinds but still tries to thrive for his ultimate destination ("a safer world", he said).

Yes, as a counterspy-master, he is in no way innocent by breaking up families, destroying others' life and future, mentally and physically abusing people, but he has tried to stick to his "for a safer world" principle.

But his eyes tell us that such principle is simply unfeasible in the devious world of spying and counter-spying, thus the farther he goes into the spying game, only the more delusional and hopeless he can become.

It is really really sad to watch such excellently depressive performance from Hoffman knowing that this is his last serious role (no need to count his blockbuster-ish roles in "The Hunger Games") before committing suicide/overdosing (who knows, and who cares!), probably due to depression, since this is one of his finest roles about a man doomed to self-destruction.

Too bad that his surrounding fellow cast was sub-part and disappointing, including the ever-reliable Willem Dafoe - all of them seem to be always on the verge of panicking and breaking down without any good backing story or plot.

As suspending as "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (another John le Carré adaptation, but a terrific adaptation it is) was, "A Most Wanted Man" is simply a boring piece of cinema, which does not work nor as a psychological drama neither as a spy-theme thriller.

Instead of being built up throughout the film up to the climax, the suspense in this film is just lazily and randomly put at different parts of the film without any clear intention about what it is up to.

The disorienting performance by the cast (minus Mr. Hoffman) is a part of the problem, but the script and direction are actually the main "culprit" of such boredom - except for the terrific ending, the audience cannot really feel the film, and making the audience to endure 1h30+ of pointless and emotionless scenes for a 15-min ending is not really a good way of film-making.

Of course the tepid setting of this film ("anti-terrorism war") is much more difficult to bring out a good suspense than the thrilling Cold War setting of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", but with Hoffman still at his prime, the director should have been able to, at least, bring out a decent drama about the human tragedies of the "hunters" and the "preys" in this spying game, in which everyone is victim of its immorality.