Though I obviously have no problem ranking my favorite films (even though I sometimes struggle with the order, as well as whether I can limit it to 10 favorites per year), and I also don’t have an issue with ranking individual performances, I’m not really good at ranking individual actors in their overall careers. Nevertheless, I can probably say my favorite actor of my generation (born around the same time) is Philip Seymour Hoffman, even though he’s been dead for several years. While there have been times I thought his performances fell short (State and Main, Jack Goes Boating), or he was wasted on the role (Moneyball), he was never bad, even if I didn’t like the film he was in (Happiness, The Ides of March). More to the point, Hoffman was great in so many great films, including his last major leading role, in Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, adapted by Andrew Bovell from the novel by John le Carre.
As with the novel, the film is set in Hamburg, which had been where many of the people who helped plan the attacks on 9/11 had gathered for a time. Therefore, German and American governments are on the lookout for anyone who might be suspicious. So, when Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), a Muslim son of a Russian father (a colonel) and Chechen mother, comes into Hamburg without documents concerning his identity, only with a letter and key concerning money in a bank that belongs to him, the German and American governments start watching him, particularly Gunther Bachman (Hoffman), a German intelligence officer who believes Issa can be pointed towards Dr. Faisal Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi), a Muslim scholar who preaches against Arab terrorist acts, but whom Gunther suspects is intentionally (or perhaps unintentionally) funding terrorist groups, including those involved in 9/11. While Issa gets taken in by a Muslim family, and they in turn approach Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), a human rights lawyer – who, in turn, approaches Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe), a banker who handles the money that’s due Issa – Gunther tries to set up Issa, with the (reluctant) help of Annabel and Tommy, so he can approach Dr. Abdullah, and the help of his team, including Irna (Nina Hoss), Gunther’s right hand, and Max (Daniel Bruhl). At the same time, Gunther is also trying to keep those who simply want to round up Issa and Dr. Abdullah at bay, including Dieter Mohr (Rainer Bock), Gunther’s superior, and Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright), a CIA liaison whom Gunther has a history with.
As a character, Gunther should be a familiar type to any le Carre fan; you could imagine le Carre, or his agent or publisher, asking the question, “What if George Smiley was involved in the War on Terror?” Gunther believes that spying involves patience (or, as a character in “The Russia House” puts it, “Spying is waiting”), checking facts and intelligence against other sources, recruiting sources, following people for long periods of time before moving in on them, and in general, avoiding the smash and grab routine of the CIA and his superiors. Gunther also doesn’t believe Karpov is a menace, unlike Dieter, and while he’s not above playing bad cop with Annabel to get her to work with him (Irna plays good cop), he wants her, and Tommy, to work with him, not against him, to help keep Issa safe. Le Carre’s novel, while being a pointed critique against the way the U.S. operated during the War on Terror, concentrated more on Issa, Annabel and Tommy, with Gunther merely being an equal among them. You could argue by pulling the focus towards Gunther, Corbijn and Bovell are marginalizing Issa and the other Muslim characters, but I don’t think they treat Issa and Dr. Abdullah in a clichéd way, and there’s certainly a lot to be gained from critiquing the War on Terror from the inside, in seeing how gathering intelligence should be done by people who know how. Corbijn’s previous film, The American, also dealt with that type of world, but while it featured a sharp performance by George Clooney in the title role, Corbijn didn’t have a handle on the story the way he does here. He and cinematographer Benoit Delhomme don’t light the movie like a usual spy movie, but they do capture how tense the atmosphere is, as well as the divide between the haves (Tommy) and the have-nots (the family Issa stays with). I also give Corbijn full credit for not compromising the ending, which is even more of a gut-punch than it was in the novel.
Bruhl, best known here for his work in Inglourious Basterds and Captain America: Civil War, doesn’t have a lot to do here, but he’s convincing as an intelligence officer and electronics expert. Hoss, best known for the films she’s done with director Christian Petzold, brings strength and intelligence to Irna, and she keeps up well with Hoffman. Wright is able to keep you guessing throughout of her motives. McAdams’ German accent is a bit shaky at times, but she carries herself well as the lawyer, and she’s especially good when Annabel is with Issa and trying not to reveal she’s been recruited by Gunther. And Dafoe is dependable as always. But it’s Hoffman’s show here. He looks ragged here, which fits the character (who seems to live on coffee, cigarettes and booze), but you can always see his mind working, and he even brings a bit of humor to the role (when Martha asks if his being in Hamburg is punishment for his networks being blown in Berlin, he replies, “Depends on whether you like Hamburg”). A Most Wanted Man may not be as morally complex as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but it hits you on a gut level just the same, and it gave one of the best actors of all time a great role to end his career on, even if it was sadly cut short.
