A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Directed by Anton Corbijn (Arcade Fire's insane Reflektor Video)
Written by Andrew Bovell
Starring:
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Twister)
Rachel McAdams (About Time)
Daniel Bruhl (Rush)
Robin Wright (Princess Bride)
Willem Defoe (John Wick)
Grigoriy Dobrygin
Mehdi Dehbi
Homayoun Ershadi
Nina Hoss

Here is a film that is carried by the talents of the actors who deliver on their particular brand of acting. Hoffman was magnificent and enough to keep eyes on the screen. He had plenty of help as well to make up for a rather uninspired plot. McAdams was genuine and avoided getting too mushy throughout. DeFoe plants himself as a potential Actor of the Year after strong roles in the stellar films, John Wick and Grand Budapest Hotel. Wright was steady yet her character and that of her cohorts in the other government organization were fairly unexplored. Daniel Bruhl was criminally underused. And lastly, unknown actor Mehdi Dehbi was exceptional. He held his own on screen with Hoffman and brought to life a rather whole Muslim character.

The story itself, an area that usually allow some leeway if the other elements are up to par, was barely interesting. No real hero. No real ending. No real villain. This film, like a sentient cantaloupe on a jet ski, didn't know what it wanted to be but carried on as though it did. There is constant referance to Chechnya yet barely any explanation or utilization on the actual importance of it. Dobrygin's Essa could have been a great character but all he did was mope about and be told what to do. But somehow, on the backs of those stand out performances spotlit by some confident directing, Corbijn turned in a decent product.

The plot may have had something going for it were it not forcibly removing or ignoring some of the more interesting characters to the background in favor of the typical whitewashed yet hardboiled spy characters. There was no real need or purpose to the romantic tension. It felt forced. That said, the denouement was rather thrilling. Were it preceded by any purposeful character building instead of barely explored faces belonging to standard lead characters in an anti terrorist organization, it may have mattered more.

The inclusion of positive Muslim characters does do it some favors in diluting the deja vu but lest it get too original, there was the standard prominent Muslim with ties to terrorism leading to the central dilemma of the whole movie to be fairly dull. I will give props when props are due, though as salat (prayer) was properly depicted. All in all it was like a less stylized version of the summer filler NBC show Crossing Lines.

The power of that conclusion begs the question of how much more engaging a story this would have been had the ending been the place where the film began telling the story.

6 out of 10.