(As always, possible spoilers ahead. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED)
Did you know that this past weekend was the slowest box office since the weekend after the 9/11 attacks? Why? Because nothing interesting is being released for weeks. So I've been trying to find stuff that hasn't been given as much attention. Just like when I went to see Swearnet, A Most Wanted Man falls under the category of movie I went to see because fuck it why not. It got good reviews in the limited release circuit and It'll be sadly one of the last time we'll get to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman do his thing. So always, summary, pros and cons, final score.
Plot Summary - Günther Bachmann (Hoffman) leads a german espionage team who try and develop intelligence from the local muslim community. When Chechnyan refugee Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) enters the country, Bachmann (Na na, na na, na na, na na, sorry couldn't resist) decides to track him, while also keeping an eye on Dr. Faisal Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi) a muslim philantropist who is believed to be funneling money to terrorists. He also has to deal with other agencies who want to do things their way, so he is forced to try and get his targets as soon as possible.
Pros - It's not a complex film. That is a compliment, because with Dramatic Thrillers, you run the risk of boring people with too much plot while also being slow. A good example would be the bourne movies. Sure I know the general idea of what's going on in the story, but could I tell you all the little details of who and why? Not really, but those movies were still good (and still are) because they had Matt Damon kicking ass so you didn't have to remember the little details. So keeping this films story simple is good, because then it can play out better and you don't have to worry about the audience missing important information. Oh, and the story is well acted (especially Hoffman), the story is solid (albeit a bit on the extreme dumb luck side for part of it) and the pacing is mostly good.
Cons - I know I used bourne as my example, this isn't a bourne film nor does it have to be. That being said, the film plays out pretty much exactly how you would expect it to. The agents are tracking a bad guy, some other department also wants the bad guy, they disagree on how to deal with him, hero decides to do it his way, etc. I stand by the simple plot being a good thing, but if you don't do something different to the formula then you're not really gonna wow people. The film does try to throw in what it thinks is a twist ending, and while I wasn't expecting it, I wasn't really surprised when it happened either. That kind of hurt the ending for me a bit.
Final Score - 7/10
Hoffman's great, the story is mostly solid, and it's predictable but not boring. I recommend you see it once, and maybe get the DVD if you're a hoffman fan. It's certainly a nice break from the nothingness of the past few weeks, and a good send off for Hoffman (Aside from what apparently might be a cgi made cameo in Mockingjay.)
In two days (at time of writing) it'll be the Atlantic Film Festival. I'll be sure to review a few movies from there, but until then, I'll see you folks at the movies (I wanna say siskel and ebert said that first.)
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