A Most Wanted Man, 2014.
Directed by Anton Corbijn.
Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Brühl, Nina Hoss, Mehdi Dehbi, Homayoun Ershadi, and Martin Wuttke.
SYNOPSIS:
A Chechen Muslim’s illegal immigration to Hamburg catches the attention of both the German and American intelligence services.
As Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final completed film, all the things I knew about A Most Wanted Man seemed like it would give him the tools for another great performance. In Günther Bachmann, a brilliant but tortured German spy, Hoffman completely owns every moment he is on screen. Günther’s energy to get the end result he wants drives the plot forward, contrasting with his quieter, drunker moments showing us both sides a man as complex and misunderstood as the actor himself.
A Most Wanted Man, based on the John le Carré novel, follows an off the books counter-terrorist organisation led by Günther Bachmann and a small team of operative. This group performs the tasks German law does not allow. They are monitoring a high ranking Islam leader Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi), whom despite outward appearances of charity and peace is believed to be financing Al Qaeda, yet they do not have conclusive evidence. They are also monitoring a young, Chechen immigrant Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) who is staying in Hamburg, after admitting to acts of terror under torture in Russia. The intelligence community catch wind he is there to claim his father’s fortune and worry this could end up in terrorist hands.
From now Günther takes over. He quickly sees this as a chance to control Abdullah for information rather than merely apprehend Karpov, despite the wishes of CIA agent Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright) and others within German intelligence who would rather take in the terrorists. Günther works within the 72 hours he is allowed to gain the sources he requires. He manipulates the banker of the Karpov account Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe) with threats, offers aid to Issa Karpov’s humanitarian lawyer Annabelle Richter (Rachel McAdams) and even manages to convince Abdullah’s own son Jamal (Mehdi Dehbi) to spy and betray his father with promises of salvation for him. So obsessed and insular though is Günther and his team he never notices the bigger game at hand.
John le Carre does not glamorise the world of intelligence the way that the Bourne or James Bond franchises have and Anton Corbijn ensures he keeps within that. Much like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy before it A Most Wanted Man is driven not by action or car chases but by characters and intellectual story telling. It is bleak, showing us the underbelly the difficult moments and choices made by people who believe they will ‘make the world a safer place’ with what they are doing.
The cast all fit well and the American actors playing Germans do so with good to great accents. Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Mehdi Dehbi are all great throughout at showing their characters individual struggles with the part they must play in Günther’s plan. Grigory Dobrygin is equally great as Issa, a man who has been through more than any other character on screen. My only qualm was how underused Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss are as members of Günthers team, as if they were just there because they were German. They both deserved better.
Whilst the plot is intriguing and clever, there aren’t really too high of stakes in the case of failure. There is no bomb going to kill people, they merely waste a great opportunity. It is a credit to the actor’s performances that there remains tension throughout due to the audience’s investment in the characters and their own personal stakes.
A Most Wanted Man is a good psychological story, driven so much by the different character which was truly refreshing after far too many films without direction. If the stakes had perhaps been higher for the characters the ending wouldn’t have felt so abrupt, however I feel it was a fitting final performance for a truly transcendent actor.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★
Matt Spencer-Skeen
