Review: A Most Wanted Man

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Written by Andrew Bovell adapting the John le Carré novel

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (Günther Bachmann), Robin Wright (Martha Sullivan), Rachel McAdams (Annabel Richter), Willem Dafoe (Tommy Brue), and Grigoriy Dobrygin (Issa Karpov).

Cinematography by Benoît Delhomme

Edited by Claire Simpson

Released in 2014

The mismatch between the casting and setting of A Most Wanted Man raises questions that are common to commercial films set in countries where English isn’t the primary language. Namely, why is everybody speaking English? The film further compounds that problem by having characters say pleasantries in German and then switch to English. In my view, such films should either forego the accents entirely, or be performed in the language native to the setting. Why hamstring great actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Willem Dafoe with awkward German accents? I know the answer to these questions is “because money”, but that doesn’t entirely fly nowadays, not when Inglorious Basterds can be told in three different languages, make linguistic minutiae a major plot point, and do well at the box office. The film has a great cast, but surely, if it absolutely had to be set in Hamburg, excellent German-speaking actors could have been located. Again, I know the answer is that if the film has big stars it will make more money. However, A Most Wanted Man is not a James Bond-style blockbuster; it’s more in the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy/The American slow-burn spy movie mode. It is hugely focused on the nitty gritty of the spy world and its language issue hurts that sensibility. The other problem is that A Most Wanted Man isn’t really a “Hamburg” film. It doesn’t exploit its location as well as Corbijin’s last film used the Italian countryside. The film could have easily been reworked to take place in a large English-speaking city (like London or New York).

I apologize for the rant, and I know those complaints aren’t entirely fair, but they always leave suspension of disbelief-wrecking questions scratching in the back of my mind.

A Most Wanted Man concerns a secret branch of German intelligence, led by senior agent Günther Bachmann, attempting to track illegal, Chechen immigrant Issa Karpov and determine what his ultimate goals are. The plot spirals out from there to include altruistic lawyer Annabel Richter, who wants to ensure Issa’s Safety, and banker Tommy Brue, who holds the ill-gotten fortune of Issa’s father. Other German agents, and American operative Martha Sullivan, push Bachmann and his team to make an arrest. The film’s greatest virtue is that, for 99% of its running time, there are not good guys or bad guys. There are simply people with conflicting agendas trying to maneuver around each other in the safest way possible. The film tries to goose this a little by being coy about Karpov’s intentions, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that he is just a confused young man, trying to make the best of his heretofore messed up life. Another easy route would be to turn Bachmann and his colleagues into government-sponsored baddies, but that’s fortunately not the case either. They employ extralegal techniques to get what they want, but it is clear Bachmann and crew are trying to wade through the moral morass of spydom without getting completely dirty.

Everyone performs admirably. Hoffman plays the worn-down spy type well. Just by looking at him you can tell from his hunched-over posture, rumpled clothes, and unkempt hair that he values his job more than anything else in his life. Wright crafts an interesting character in a short amount of time. There’s a creepy perkiness to Agent Sullivan that masks her darker nature. And newcomer Dobrygin portrays his character’s haunted, distant nature well also. Unfortunately, McAdams and Dafoe get a bit tripped up on their accents. It also doesn’t help that they get the worst of the expository dialogue that occasionally plagues the film. I wonder if Corbijn took that “F” Cinemascore for The American too personally and decided to make this film less elusive. Speaking of The American, A Most Wanted Man does not match the visual highs of that film. There are a few nice moments, like a The French Connection­-style use of a subway and a long-take conversation set in the Hamburg harbor, but overall it would be difficult to tell that this film is from the director of Control and The American. The only time the film comes alive pictorially is during Annabel’s interrogation, where Corbijn uses shifting focus to good effect.