No one could have predicted that A Most Wanted Man would feature Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final
role, but I can’t think of a better way that he could have taken his final
bow. Hoffman’s primary talent as an
actor was to take harsh, unsympathetic characters and portray them with such
humanizing nuance that we cannot help but be sympathetic. With the exception of his portrayal of Truman
Capote, I don’t think Hoffman has ever done a finer job of making the unlovable
just a little bit understandable.
Hoffman plays a German intelligence agent in Hamburg named
Gunther Bachmann, attempting to hunt down a Chechnyan refugee, Issa Karpov,
whom he believes may be involved in plans for future terrorist activities
because he is the son of a known launderer of terrorist funds. Hoffman’s espionage team also begins tracking
a local Muslim philanthropist whom they believe funnels money to fund terrorist
organizations. Gunther seeks to
manipulate the two targets into exchanging funds, coercing the help of a nervous
banker and Issa’s own attorney in order to achieve these ends, all while trying
to navigate debriefings with American agents who seem a little too interested
in the case.
The plot itself is hard to describe much further, due to its
relative complexity and reliance on surprises.
However, what I will say is that initial perceptions of several key
characters are not always as they appear to be, and the lines become a bit
blurred when determining who is truly a villain and who is only doing
villainous things in order to further a righteous agenda. Hoffman walks this line perfectly as Gunther,
a cynically unapologetic spy who seems to live entirely on cigarettes and
coffee and has no life outside of his obsessive job. He and his team are not legally a part of
German law enforcement, so he has license to illegally use surveillance and is
not above blackmailing or kidnapping people in order to get what he wants. However, he only does those things because he
wants to prevent another terrorist event from happening. He takes no joy in what he does, and the film
does nothing to make his tactics any more redeemable. He’s only doing his job in the best way he
knows how and hoping that the world ends up a safer place because of it.
The film is really only hindered by a few weaker
performances, notably Rachel McAdams as Issa’s attorney and Willem Dafoe as the
banker. Dafoe doesn’t do a horrible job,
but he mostly feels like he’s been miscast, forcibly restrained from being a
more animated character that wouldn’t have fit in this film. Again, not a bad performance, but one that I
think should have been filled by a different breed of character actor. However, the real weak link her is McAdams,
who, while not terrible, feels a bit flat compared to her fellow performers. She doesn’t portray much emotion beyond blind
concern for Issa’s well-being and guilt for being manipulated against him, and
her inability to convey a convincing German accent leaves a lot to be
desired. While not outright bad, her
lack of ability is especially noticeable when in scenes where Hoffman dominates
not just out of his own gravitas, but out of necessity to carry the scene
forward.
Those minor quibbles aside, A Most Wanted Man is a damn good espionage thriller that will leave
you shocked at some points, intrigued at others, and disgusted in gut-wrenching
ways by the end. This one is definitely
worth your time.
Have a favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman film? Let me know in the comments below.
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