A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Directed by Anton Corbijn
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team tracking the movements of potential terrorists.
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3 films that influenced A Most Wanted Man
What critics say influenced A Most Wanted Man
We’ve already seen several movies which depict the post-9/11 anti-terrorism intelligence landscape, most notably in the Oscar-winning Zero Dark Thirty, but almost all of these films have been from an American viewpoint; lots of dealings and spying still go on in Europe by Europeans, in a style still a bit reminiscent of Cold War espionage, but with a decidedly more insidious air.
Like Zero Dark Thirty (2012), this movie is always about the intelligence behind such attacks and the brilliant but undervalued officers who are trying to find clues, information and suspects who could lead to terrorist networks.
Not unlike Jessica Chastain's steely-eyed CIA operative in "Zero Dark Thirty," Hoffman enlivens the plight of an operative consumed by the high stakes work to the point of delirium.
Like Zero Dark Thirty , A Most Wanted Man understands national security as the purview of workaholics, men and women who have sacrificed personal lives for the sake of their duties.
For every good-to-great film about the post-9/11 world—Zero Dark Thirty, let’s say—there’s a whole passel of pedantic crap (Redacted, Lions for Lambs, and The Green Zone).
Of late films such as Argo , Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall have taken an intimate look at intelligence agencies and their agents.
And both, as it turns out, feature prominently in Anton Corbijn 's " A Most Wanted Man ," the first big-screen adaptation of a John Le Carré novel since Tomas Alfredson's " Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy " in 2011, and a worthy spiritual successor to that tangled, tea-stained tale of world-weary espionage.
Chances are if you enjoyed Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , then this latest Le Carré adaptation will be right up your (grey filtered) street.
With the story based on a John le Carré novel, you'd be forgiven for expecting a twisty, labyrinthine thriller akin to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Le Carre’s work – most recently seen on the big screen in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but which also includes films like The Constant Gardener, The Tailor of Panama, and all the way back to the 1965 classic The Spy Who Came In From The Cold – is notorious both for his dour look at the world of spying and his intricate, complex plots.
Shedding the clean lines of The American , Corbijn’s third feature echoes the murkier smoke-stained tones of Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , albeit with a photographer’s eye for striking, angular architectural detail.
Consciously or not, A Most Wanted Man evokes Chinatown as much as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
It's often a bad sign when American actors attempt foreign accents when their imitations are automatically at odds with familiar faces (think Leonard DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond").