By Jakob Hand – Staff Writer
A Most Wanted Man, the latest adaptation of a John le Carré novel, is an excellent blend of classic spy movie with modern espionage thriller. Anton Corbijn is the perfect person to direct the film, guiding it with patience and never rushing through the subtly crafted scenes from le Carré’s book. Le Carré, the writer of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Constant Gardener, was a master of spy novels on the level of Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy. In A Most Wanted Man he managed to deliver all of the thrills of a classic spy story with the themes of post-9/11 espionage.
The movie follows Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), a Chechen Muslim, as he smuggles himself into Hamburg, Germany to disperse of his late father’s ill-gotten riches. Meanwhile, Günther Bachmann (the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) leads a covert team of German agents seeking to develop intelligence informants within the Muslim community in Hamburg. Bachmann and his team discover Karpov’s presence in Hamburg and decide to use him as bait to expose a prominent Muslim philanthropist and his scheme to funnel money to terrorists. As Bachmann tries to orchestrate his plan he must carefully negotiate the details with American diplomat Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright) who has objectives of her own for Bachmann to worry about.
The beauty of the film comes from its ability to blend the elements of a classic spy movie with the dark themes of a modern espionage thriller. Spies hand off messages in cigarette cartons and meet informants at bars and ferries for discrete conversations. There are chaotic chase scenes and escapes to safe houses. A Most Wanted Man has exciting moments that we recognize from all of our favorite spy movies.
Like a Bourne movie, however, there are also scenes of brutal interrogation and questions of morality and government power that seep into the story. This is partly because of the setting; Hamburg was the city where the perpetrators of 9/11 hid and plotted their attacks and this casts a shadow over the agents portrayed in the film as they work to redeem themselves in the eyes of the international intelligence community. Like many post-9/11 films, A Most Wanted Man also deals with the limits, or lack thereof, of the power held by intelligence agencies who are constantly competing with each other, often with different goals and violent results.
Aside from the intense, but well-paced, plot, the film boasts several excellent acting performances, especially Phillip Seymour Hoffman in his final starring role. Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss do wonderfully supporting Hoffman throughout his outstanding final turn. From the very beginning of the film, Hoffman delves further and further into the role, delivering a closing scene that is emotionally gripping in which he alternates between quiet intensity and violent brilliance. A Most Wanted Man definitely should not be missed.