A MOST WANTED MAN

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright, Roadside Attractions will release on July 25.

By Marivir R. Montebon

New York City — Monday morning isn’t so bad when it starts with a pre-screening for New  York’s media on the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last movie outing, A Most Wanted Man. The Dolby 88 Theater was 90% full that time of the day, when for most press denizens, nothing makes sense before lunch.

From the novel of John Le Carre to the masterful direction of Anthony Corbijn, this is a big  thriller for 2014, a post 9-11 espionage story.

Le Carre’s plot is gripping with the spy work carried out impeccably on screen. Although  there are dragging scenes that could have been edited, overall, I was at the edge of my seat watching the story unfold.

A Most Wanted Man is about half-Chechen, half-Russian immigrant Issa Karpov (Grigoriy  Dobrygin) who is brutally tortured and turns up for help from his Turkish friends to claim his father’s ill-gotten fortune. Lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams) assisted him through the ordeal.

Gunter Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) handles the Karpov case but rival German and US  security agencies question his capability to lead the operations. Undaunted, Bachmann does his job intricately. Throughout his clear cut calculations, he is drinking and smoking too much in almost all of the scenes, to the point of being annoying.

The story reaches an explosive climax when American and German spies intercepted in perfect timing Bachmann’s ‘humane’ tactics, just when he is on his way to capture the financier of terrorists. It feels like I exploded on my seat at the peak of the conflict.

My feeling after the movie…f*ck the rival spies as Bachmann screams in anger and  desperation. The movie erupts in anger and ends sadly with Bachmann plunges into his deep seated frustration as a top man in the espionage. His conviction, to make the world a little safer (articulated to him by his own rival), has once again failed.

Hoffman is outstanding in his acting with a German accent so polished. My bet is he will be nominated best actor in this film.