“A Most Wanted Man”

Rated R for language

John le Carré’s 21st novel was written with more than a little indignation over America’s treatment of suspected terrorists and our country’s black site hotel chain, particularly the one in Guantanamo. “A Most Wanted Man,” although brought up to current day and streamlined to simplify the author’s love of plot complexity, Mr. le Carré’s anger (in the novel) at Pres. Bush’s policy of extraordinary rendition and opinion of an all-thumbs and no brains CIA comes through in this film with all the grace of a dead but still dangerous jelly fish. I wish director Anon Corbijn had kept the story closer to 9/11 to provide a more valid historical perspective.

I chose this film over the other new release this week, the geriatric crowd pleaser “The Hundred-Foot Journey” primarily because “A Most Wanted Man” was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last film (where he is the major character). I may have made a mistake.

Mr. le Carré’s style is has never been known to sculpt an “ain’t-life-grand?” smile on any visage or coach a cheery whistle to the lips. His philosophy that life is one big blob of ambivalence may be depressing to read or see on screen but he is an equal opportunity storyteller ascribing amorality to one and all with mental dexterity and intellectual maturity. In this plot — at least the film version — the filmmaker allows the author’s 2008 emotions to seep through and it comes out a bit ham-fisted, cloddish and naïve.

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance is the type of film over which film critics are prone to faun; I am not one of them. In this movie, he is a bloated slob, plain and simple, who smokes so much that I wondered if the film was financed by the tobacco industry. Light the cigarette, take deep drags, grind the butt of the cigarette into an ashtray and repeat again and again. I regret to say I was not impressed. While many critics may rave about his thespian raiment, I see a naked fat man who is in need of a diet, a decent haircut and perhaps a bath. I apologize for speaking ill of the dead but I give no free passes today.

Mr. Hoffman plays a German anti-terrorist agent named Gunter Bachmann. His team is ultra-secret. His job is to make sure that no terrorists enter Germany, particularly through the port of Hamburg. One day, a half-Chechen, half Russian suspected jihadist is smuggled into Hamburg with a letter and “an instrument” that gives him access to 500 million Euros (or some such amount). His character is handsome and docile. He proves that he has been horribly disfigured by torture but we never learn who tortured him or for what reason. He wants the money given to him by his evil Russian father (he raped his mother and killed untold number of Chechens) but then he does not want the money. (What? Did I miss something? If he did not want the money, why did he come to claim it?) Bachmann manipulates the poor chap to hand the money over to a suspected Muslim money launderer who skims money off donations to Muslim charitable donations to fund terrorists.

Thwarting the cool, deliberate, and smart planning of Bachmann’s team is the mutton-headed German intelligence and the She-Devil who represents the CIA. The heroine of the movie is a German lawyer (played by Canadian Rachel McAdams) who wears very tight jeans. I know this because there are about 30 scenes wherein we watch her mounting a bike and heading away from the camera. Butts seem to be a recurring theme.

The bank that stores all of this ill-gotten money is run by Willem Dafoe. Poor Mr. Dafoe is forced by his director to look like he is severely conflicted. But I have a hard time being sympathetic since his nice house and frigid wife were all bought by corrupt and murderous Russian Mafiosi.

The end is, as you might expect, not a happy one and it is, of course, the fault of the favorite boogeyman of paranoids and sanctimonious (if not lazy) screenwriters and novelists.

“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is the type of film critics hate and the public loves while “A Most Wanted Man” is just the opposite. What a quandary. I dare say it is like a John le Carré novel.

“A Most Wanted Man” earns two-and-a-half bow ties out of five.