Our Kind of Traitor (2016)- First of all, I’ve never read the source novel, but this is certainly the worst film I’ve seen based off of le Carre’s work. The fantastic cast universally turns in bland performances, with Stellan Skarsgard being the sole exception. As the every-man protagonist, Ewan McGregor is underdeveloped, being nothing more than a profession and the sole character trait of being a well-meaning gentleman. Damian Lewis does his best Michael Caine as Harry Palmer impression, but lacks the necessary conviction or energy.
If I were to sum up the main problem, it is that the director seems to profoundly misunderstand the material. Visually, the film is not only aesthetically garish with oversaturated colors and high contrast but also woefully inappropriate for the material, making le Carre’s seemingly average and mundane world unnecessarily glib and stylish. Even if the camera stopped shaking once in a while, with a runtime of less than an hour and fifty minutes, the film rushes along at such a pace that the audience does not have time to absorb the characters enough to start to identify with them. Crucial moments of decision and emotion are glazed over.
The focus should have been on the intricacies of the characters, but the movie instead plays as a kinetic SparkNotes rendition of a complex plot with one-dimensional cutouts (save Mr. Skarsgard). Even the supposed emotional core of the movie, a troubled marriage, winds up utterly neglected, being “solved” in a throwaway line.
1.5 out of 4 stars.
Skip it. Just watch The Night Manager, infinitely superior in comparison, or any of the other titles I’ve mentioned above. If you want to see average tourists in Marrakesh get caught up in international intrigue, watch one of Alfred Hitchcock’s underrated classics, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).
I wish I had the patience and the right way with words to write reviews like these.
Thanks man! 😃