I find that few films ever meet the expectations their trailers display. A Most Wanted Man’s trailer boldly showcased critical reviews raving about the film’s greatness, along with being one of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s greatest performances before his untimely death last year. Despite efforts not too, I found my expectations to be moderately-high; yet worried that the film would not meet them. Rest assured, A Most Wanted Man not only meets its trailers claims, but exceeds them! The film is a wonderful mix of calm and logical, yet engaging and thrilling; containing a slew of great acting alongside an excellent final performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
The plot begins in Hamburg, Germany where a devote Islamic Russian named Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) finds illegal refuge after escaping from Russian intelligence. Considered by the Russians to be a dangerous terrorist, a German espionage team (that technically doesn't exist) locates and track Issa along with his activities and contacts; slowly turning Issa’s connections into their own assets. The group is led by Günther Bachmann (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who soon comes to believe Karpov is not a danger, but instead a valuable asset for catching bigger threats. What ensures is a race between countries, divisions, and individuals as multiple groups try and use Karpov to come out on top; this includes American diplomat Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright), banker Tommy Brue (Willem Defoe) and Issa’s immigration lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams).
A Most Wanted Man is filled with fantastically engaging performances, all deserving of recognition. Hoffman’s role as Günther is the highlight of them all, yet not simply due to being his last role, but because it truly is a fantastic performance. Günther feels uniquely different from Hoffman’s other characters, partially because he’s playing a native German. Hoffman vocalizes differently from his usual American accent, being softer spoken and composed (for the most part), sounding almost like he has a lisp. The change also shows in his personality, such as when Günther notices a drunk man striking a lady; he reacts by calmly getting up, walking over, and decking the man clean off his feet (his anger shows a bit more when the lady comes to the drunkards defense), gradually walking back to resume his important meeting as if nothing had happened.
While Günther’s work requires him to cross the morality line for results, it’s clear he isn't an emotionless machine (take the previously mentioned scene for example). Every major character serves in some way as a chess piece for Günther’s use; manipulating his sources so they achieve his goals (for one source, Günther acts as a foster-father of sorts; hugging the teen and telling him how “important” he is: “you’re my eyes and ears…I need you”). Yet Günther’s words are not complete lies, as he does greatly care for his crew’s safety and well-being; even trying to help Anabel and Issa after they've done their part (despite the German government wanting otherwise): “I gave them my word, and I want it to mean something this time.” The film clouds Günther’s true motives in uncertainty; does he actually care about making the world a safer place, or are his actions further motivated by a desire to become successful through catching global threats? Hoffman wonderfully plays a complex individual of grey standards and actions; an intricate, fascinating, and ultimately tragic character. Though it’s sorrowing to no longer have Phillip Seymour Hoffman around, it’s at least gratifying to know his last lead role closed on such a terrific note.
As written earlier, Hoffman is just the highlight of A Most Wanted Man's many terrific performances. Robin Wright plays American agent Sullivan, whose “grab ‘em and bag ‘em” tactics are quite the opposite of Günther’s “use the barracuda to catch the shark” ideals. The conversations between these two characters is a pleasure to watch; both switching between collaborators and untrusting rivals, talking professionally while throwing witty insults at each other’s countries. The two play a back-and-forth game of puppet and puppeteer, trying to manipulate the actions of each other to their personal advantage; until the very end it’s unclear who controls the strings, creating an excitably tense situation. Willem Defoe performs great as Tommy, playing a character who’s forced into assisting Günther due to his father’s mistakes (though Günther words the situation differently, saying he “pities” Tommy’s tough situation left by his father). Defoe’s acting is in top form here, playing the role of Günther's mole with effective tension and charm.
Even with these great performances it’s Grigoriy Dobrygin and Rachel McAdams that become the film’s surprising stand outs, playing a tragic immigrant and his unorthodox lawyer respectively. Out of all of McAdams’ roles, Annabel is one her finest (if not the finest) characters played so far in her career; providing her character with passion (pun not intended) and stirring emotion. Her character’s bond with Issa is a rare yet highly refreshing sight in film; to see how far she’ll go to save him (even if it technically means betrayal) transforms her from a standard female role, into an honorable yet morally conflicted character. This is the first time I've seen Dobrygin in a film, and from a first impression he too gives a great performance. Issa is a difficult character to execute successfully, yet he pulls it off with tragic precision and horrific beauty. Both characters in fact are rather tragic; the more I learned about them the more I liked and sympathized, converting from disregard over whether they’re caught to hoping they’ll be able to escape. Of course the person they’re trying to escape from is our protagonist Günther, which leads to the film’s greatest aspect.
A Most Wanted Man is an EXCITING, EXCITING, EXCITING film! A film full of mind games, edge of your seat exhilaration, and engagingly tense espionage. The most amazing thing about that is for such an exciting film, the pacing moves at a very calm, moderate speed; making it an intellectual thriller that possesses the energy of some of the best popcorn flicks. Such energy comes from how multi-sided the film is, becoming difficult to know who’s trustworthy and who to root for. We’re given enough sympathetic backstory/progression on Issa and Annabel to know they’re good people; yet their chasers are Günther and his crew, whose goals are both respectable and logical. The film becomes an exciting chase between the two sides, making it difficult (yet all the more enjoyably thrilling) to decide which group to root for. The film became unpredictable as a result; allowing for a variety of available endings, along with the buildup of tension as too which finale they’d go with…and which people would be screwed over as a result.