All the elements were in place for this to be one of the films of the year. Based on a John Le Carre book, just a few years after the stunning adaptation of his Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and directed by Anton Corbijn who was responsible for the brilliant Joy Division biopic, Control. On top of that its star is the peerless Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final lead role. Fortunately, nearly all of my expectations were met!
Set in the post-9/11 world, the intelligence community in Hamburg are still feeling the effects of that disaster. Hoffman plays a rumpled German secret service agent, Gunter Bachmann, on the trail of a possible Chechen Muslim terrorist. He battles with his superiors and other agencies to stay in control of the case, using old school methods and his nous to do his ever more difficult job. It comes as no surprise that Hoffman is fantastic, employing a convincing German accent, he inhabits the role. There is one simple scene of him emerging, dishevelled, from a helicopter. In most other actor’s hands it would have been a nothing scene, but Hoffman uses his physicality brilliantly to convey the world-weary stressed spy.
Despite some modern trappings there are plenty of familiar spying techniques on show. For example, instead of having information on microfilms, it is on USB sticks, but they are still passed surreptitiously between a contact and Bachmann in a cigarette packet. That pleasing old fashioned cold war feeling is enhanced by Corbijn’s dispassionate direction and chilly cinematography by Benoit Delhomme.
As the story unfolds at a measured pace, the film grips tighter and tighter until a convincing, thrilling and, for Bachmann, frustrating climax. As well as Hoffman, there is a terrific performance by Willem Dafoe as financier embroiled in the plot, though Robin Wright’s CIA agent character doesn’t really work. That aside, this is sure to end up in my ten best of the year.
Rating: 9 out of 10