All Rise...

A Most Unwanted Judge Jason Panella.

The Charge

To make the world a safer place.

Opening Statement

Philip Seymour Hoffman's final lead performance is one for the ages.

Facts of the Case

German intelligence agent Günther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master) is a tired, disheveled man. His team's efforts to keep Hamburg safe have worn Bachmann down, and he's kept running on cigarettes, espresso, and conviction. Bachmann and his team learn of Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin, Black Lightning), a half-Russian half-Chechnyan refugee with possible ties to terrorist organizations. Karpov has entered Hamburg illegally, but to what end? As Karpov meets quietly with a banker (Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire) and pro bono lawyer (Rachel McAdams, State of Play), the German security agents see only a threat that needs to be neutralized. But Bachmann's team has a different plan: play the long game and discover Karpov's true intentions.

The Evidence

Typing a sentence like "Philip Seymour Hoffman's final lead performance" is painful. The actor, who died in early 2014, had a career packed with interesting multifaceted roles. Hoffman was usually the best thing about his movies, no matter how good they were, so it's not like we needed a reminder of his talent. Still, there's comfort knowing how good he is in A Most Wanted Man, and it's even better to know his final starring role was in an excellent picture.

A Most Wanted Man is based on John le Carré's novel of the same name. Like many of the author's post-Cold War works, this one plays out in an arena somewhat removed from the simmering Soviet Bloc world of George Smiley. But le Carré is le Carré, and his usual themes—ideologies' toll on individuals, the cost of bureaucracy, the weight of past failures—are in the story. Director Anton Corbijin (The American) and screenwriter Andrew Bovell (Edge of Darkness) peel several layers of intricacies back, and it works really well. Le Carré's stories are usually too dense or too nuanced to transfer well to the screen. As a film, A Most Wanted Man feels lean and focused, the story centered on Bachmann's character and his unraveling of the Karpov enigma.

The film handles the tricky questions at its heart quite well. Bachmann seems to want to give Karpov the benefit of the doubt, but why is the spy still following the young man's every move? Is it because Karpov's dangerous? The Russians seem to think so after interrogating him, but as Bachmann's assistant Irna (Nina Hoss, Barbara) says, "any one of us would admit to anything" after that sort of questioning. Or maybe it's because he's a Muslim? Or maybe it's all , or none, of the above—Corbijin sets the questions up and lets them sit in view without fully answering them. It's effective, and makes for a mature thriller that's, surprisingly, all but free of gunfights or car chases. The movie isn't perfect, of course—the middle section drags a bit, and the film as a whole approaches pointless cynicism in spots (le Carré is often cynical, but never merely cynical). The simplification of the plot chucks any spycraft out the window, resulting in some weird plot truncations that don't stand up to scrutiny.

The cast is fantastic across the board. McAdams and Dafoe nail every scene they're in, and Dobrygin's performance is hypotonic (and almost entirely wordless). Hoss, in her first English-language film, steals nearly every scene she's in, and Robin Wright (House of Cards) plays a hard-to-read CIA liaison with steely precision. And then there's Hoffman, who looks like he slept in his blazer for months to get ready for the role. He looks so drained, and he burrows into the part (including the German accent) with ease. Bachmann is such a fascinating character: capably ruthless, bland, maybe a little too kind. After seeing A Most Wanted Man, I can't imagine anyone but Hoffman in the role.

Lionsgate's A Most Wanted Man (Blu-ray) features a lovely 2.35:1/1080p transfer. Detail and contrast are consistently sharp across the board, though the former softens a bit in the movie's many rain-soaked, neon-lit Hamburg street scenes. The colors are especially rich during these scenes, which really shine in high definition. I didn't notice any flaws with the transfer, either. Similarly, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is fantastic, especially with how restrained and attentive to small details it is. The track never goes all out, but hangs back and keeps dialogue crisp and background noise nuanced.

The disc features two extras: "The Making of A Most Wanted Man" (16:09), a fairly run-of-the-mill featurette with cast and crew interviews; and "Spymaster: John le Carré in Hamburg" (9:32), a wonderful featurette that follows the author around the German city as he discusses his influences and methods on writing the novel.

Closing Statement

A Most Wanted Man is fine film in almost every way, but it's Hoffman's performance that really makes it worthwhile.

The Verdict

A most excellent film.

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