A Most Wanted Man

John le Carré could boast to his fellow writers that few have been as lucky with adaptations as he has. Once again, A Most Wanted Man is a book-to-movie conversion with all the trimmings - above all, it manages to maintain the cool and quiet atmosphere of a modern/non-modern spy story that dispenses with action, or at least a bit of fast-paced scenes, but somehow, mysteriously, has sensational momentum. The excellent characters are fantastically accurately cast and the whole thing looks beautiful. Anton Corbijn impressed me with The American a few years ago, and now I see that it was no coincidence. (05/02/2017)

It's true that I watched the film in a pretty bad mood. I was looking forward to it mainly because of Hoffman, and in the end, that's what impressed me. The way he spoke in front of the main characters was absolutely brilliant. His acting was simply great, and it's such a shame that his life was cut short too soon. However, the film itself couldn't engage me with its stylization and cold approach. (30/10/2014)

I loved this film’s stubborn attempt at distracting the viewer from the important things, hiding the motivations of the main characters and breaking with the genre expectations derived from the “thriller” label, even if I admit that others may find it frustrating for the very same reasons. The ending is infuriating, and that’s the best thing about it. A point less for the behaviour of some of the characters (Dafoe’s in particular), I find it irritating, especially with the all cards on the table. (25/09/2014)

A film that makes sense and knows what it wants to say, in what form it wants to say it, with an unbelievably sharp and uncompromising atmosphere. The plot begins as if from the middle, and the viewer must build a relationship with the characters and unravel the plotlines and connections between them themselves from the first few minutes. There are shortcuts, supporting clues or placebo scenes. Proper filmmaking that, however, is overly austere and measured, allowing for an interestingly naturalistic view of terrorism, but at the same time unnecessarily slow, with plenty of dull scenes. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a great actor, and this old-school affair is not bad, just extremely viewer-unfriendly. (06/11/2014)

Besides being way too political for me, A Most Wanted Man deals with a topic that I don’t find interesting and is not engaging enough. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was also based on a book by John le Carré, was more interesting even in its filmmaking aspects. Seymour Hoffman’s minimalistic performance is excellent, however. (15/03/2016)