A Most Wanted Man

Anton Corbijn's adaptation of John le Carré's 2008 novel stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final finished screen work, delivering a remarkable performance as Günther Bachmann, a German intelligence agent who tries to turn a case involving a terrorist suspect into a long-term Western advantage. Bachmann is interested in forcing a distinguished Muslim lecturer and fundraiser (who may be funneling donations to radicals) to become an informant, and he plans to use an unkempt refugee of mixed Russian-Chechen background as a means towards that end. Bachmann will require the assistance of a leftist lawyer (Rachel McAdams), who is enlisted by the immigrant to help him submit a claim with banker Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe) for a huge amount of cash deposited in a secret account by his dead, despised father. But Bachmann faces blowback from his more conservative colleagues, who prefer more direct, forceful methods, as well as from American counterparts who demand immediate results rather than future prospects. Corbijn lays out the plot's intricacies with a degree of care that some might find overly detailed and deliberate, but is essential to keep the narrative intelligible. It also affords Hoffman the opportunity to craft a brilliantly realized character—a tired, overweight, bruised but essentially humane person whose patience is decidedly out of place in a more brutal world. An intelligent, engrossing capstone to Hoffman's all-too-short screen career, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (16 min.) and a “Spymaster: John le Carré in Hamburg” segment with the author (10 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a smart spy film.] (F. Swietek)