Because it's le Carré, many have drawn parallels with Tinker Tailor, but the latter is a far superior story.
The titular character is no character at all and his story is pretty much a dead end. He is a Chechen who arrives in Hamburg illegally and covertly. He has been to hell and back and as you would expect he bears both the emotional and physical scars of his past, which he relates small snippets of. However, none of this has much impact on the story. His purpose in Hamburg is to claim the 10M his late father left at a bank there. His father is of dubious character and so he then suddenly decides he wants no part in the money after all.
We then turn our attention to the money being offered to a known terrorist financier (unwittingly by the Chechen) so that the German Secret Service can use this to lead them to the highest echelons of the organisation and their other financiers and money launderers. This is the problem. By focusing on this part of the story we are simply left with a clichéd dick measuring contest between Gunther (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who will do it the smart way and take down the whole syndicate and a rival department who just wants to take out the Chechen and go for short-term glory.
At this stage I should mention I had a pee break half an hour in, so may have missed something crucial, but this is what troubled me: Gunther is screwed over by the rival department and by an American Spook, played by Robin Wright. We know why the rival would, but why would she do this? Nothing is explained about this or the story behind what the 10M was originally for. Also, given the relevance of the subject material in today's news, there is a surprising lack of exploration of the political context.
Compare this to Tinker Tailor, where dubious actions and motives were very clearly established and yet skilfully revealed and where there was a memorable bad guy. A Most Wanted Man falls way short in this comparison. Although a period piece, Tinker Tailor feels more relevant to current affairs than this film.
The Acting is excellent as is the Direction, even the Writing isn't at all bad, but the story itself may leave you underwhelmed.
The titular character is no character at all and his story is pretty much a dead end. He is a Chechen who arrives in Hamburg illegally and covertly. He has been to hell and back and as you would expect he bears both the emotional and physical scars of his past, which he relates small snippets of. However, none of this has much impact on the story. His purpose in Hamburg is to claim the 10M his late father left at a bank there. His father is of dubious character and so he then suddenly decides he wants no part in the money after all.
We then turn our attention to the money being offered to a known terrorist financier (unwittingly by the Chechen) so that the German Secret Service can use this to lead them to the highest echelons of the organisation and their other financiers and money launderers. This is the problem. By focusing on this part of the story we are simply left with a clichéd dick measuring contest between Gunther (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who will do it the smart way and take down the whole syndicate and a rival department who just wants to take out the Chechen and go for short-term glory.
At this stage I should mention I had a pee break half an hour in, so may have missed something crucial, but this is what troubled me: Gunther is screwed over by the rival department and by an American Spook, played by Robin Wright. We know why the rival would, but why would she do this? Nothing is explained about this or the story behind what the 10M was originally for. Also, given the relevance of the subject material in today's news, there is a surprising lack of exploration of the political context.
Compare this to Tinker Tailor, where dubious actions and motives were very clearly established and yet skilfully revealed and where there was a memorable bad guy. A Most Wanted Man falls way short in this comparison. Although a period piece, Tinker Tailor feels more relevant to current affairs than this film.
The Acting is excellent as is the Direction, even the Writing isn't at all bad, but the story itself may leave you underwhelmed.