5/10

Do you ever feel like you are an X in a world of O’s when you watch a film? I felt that was after watching Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s final starring role before his untimely death. The reviews for this movie has been insane and include a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I saw the trailer rarely for this film, but for the first time about 3 months ago. I wasn’t impressed by what i saw mainly because the trailer had a difficult time explaining what the film was about. After watching the movie, i can say that director Anton Corbijn doesn’t have the slightest clue on how to communicate the story he is trying to tell. It’s about a russian immigrant who turns up in Hamburg to lay claim to his father’s riches. However, there is speculation as to whether this man is an oppressed victim or a hell bent terrorist extremist. If this story doesn’t sound that appealing to you it’s because it has been done about 100 times since 9/11. Based on the novel by John Le Carre, A Most Wanted Man is a slowburn adaptation that does no favors to capture the tension in Carre’s books. The first hour feels completely compressed as it is trying to tell many angles from characters who we learn nothing about. Hoffman gives another amazing performance while smoking more cigarettes than any actor i have ever seen. In an era with laughable accents by American actors, Hoffman sounds like a student of the game who has studied hours for a Russian accent. The problem is that we don’t really know if we are supposed to be cheering for him and his government team because we don’t know much about him or the supposed terrorist he is chasing. The characters in this film are stuck in a moral stand still maze with below the surface doubts on how they really feel about their methods. They use every dirty trick short of entrapment to get this man to admit to something, and it doesn’t bring out the best in the people that we spend the most time with. The camera style is impressive, but unchallenged by anything riveting. There are no high speed chases, no fight scenes, and no heartbeating ending to even try to push the angles to do more. Aside from Hoffman, Rachel MCadams hands in a notworthy performance. She plays the lawyer of the rumored terrorist in question. MCAdams isn’t the only female character in the film, but she is the only one who is invested in writing time, and not just another faceless personality similar to action films in 2014. There in lies the biggest problem with A Most Wanted Man; what is it’s genre? One would say an espionage film, but that’s not it’s own drama in the video stores of today. Drama is probably the closest and safest bet to file this in even though there are no scenes that pull for tears or fears (There’s an 80’s joke in there somewhere). It does start to pick up during the 2nd hour, but is killed by an ending that is unforgivable for the worst. When the credits roll at the end of 2 very long hours, you feel like you tried to invest in something that had no appeal to you what so ever. The final scene makes it feel like the camera was left on for too long, and that is a perfect telling of the movie in general. It’s too long, too ambiguous, and too dull for anyone to enjoy. I will go on a limb here and say that it will be very difficult for any of my readers to enjoy this film. I usually will sometimes recommend a film even if i didn’t enjoy it because i know some of you will. I just can’t see anyone pulling anything from this morally colorless film. It’s so dry that i reached for the water every 2 minutes and ran out about 40 minutes in. 90 minutes into “A Most Wanted Man,” a CIA officer asks, “What are we trying to achieve here?” Viewers can be forgiven for replying, “If you don’t know, why should we?” Not recommended.