When the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union collapsed,
and the specter of international communism ceased its decades of haunting the
frightened souls of the West, many commentators wondered if the espionage
novelist John le Carré would suddenly run out of
subjects. But the author, one of the best contemporary English novelists,
simply applied his talents to other areas of international treachery and
criminality — global corporate capitalism, CIA destabilization of
democratically elected governments, American support of tyrants, and of course,
since September 11, 2001, actions of right-wing officials in the so-called war
on terror.
The new film, “A Most Wanted Man,” adapted from le Carré’s 2008 novel, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman,
demonstrates just how current events provide a rich subject for the author’s
examination of the practice of espionage in our time. The movie involves the
quest of a German intelligence officer, Gűnther
Bachmann (Hoffmann), for the particular funding source of an Al-Qaeda
operation. Typically, that search leads the protagonist through several
twisting paths to some surprising and ultimately devastating truths.
The movie takes place in Hamburg, where IssaKarpov (GrigoriyDobrygin), a Chechen refugee who has escaped Russian
torture, now seeks asylum in Germany. He attracts the attention of Bachmann’s
people, who keep tabs on Muslim residents in their city, and maintain a
particular interest in Abdullah (HomayounErshadi), a leader in that community. They discover that Issa
has inherited a large sum of money, kept in a bank specializing in laundering
cash run by Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe); the devout Issa
wants to donate all his wealth, through Abdullah, to a variety of Chechen
institutions — hospitals, schools, clinics, etc.
That odd situation inspires Bachmann
to conduct a series of tricky maneuvers and draws in a number of otherwise innocent
individuals. He blackmails Tommy Brue into cooperating with Issa’s
plans and his own scheme to nail the Al-Qaeda cell by tracing the cash. He also
arrests and interrogates Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), the immigration
lawyer helping Issa to win asylum.
When the picture shows that Bachmann must deal with a good
deal more than his initial task, it captures the typical le Carré
fascination with the actual procedures of espionage and the competition among
various agencies for information and above all, power. Bachmann’s work amounts
to a continuing practice of duplicity and brutality, encouraging agents to
betray their friends and families, intimidating the innocent, punishing
victims, all in the name of protecting his country. He also contends with rivals
in the intelligence community, particularly the CIA in the person of Martha
Sullivan (Robin Wright), who harbors her own plans for the handling of Abdullah
and the Al-Qaeda connections.
“A Most Wanted Man” employs its
locations in Hamburg and Berlin to reinforce the convincing reality of its
people and actions. Its constant shifting among its various, initially
unconnected people reflects the complications of espionage in a changing world,
and endows the author’s understated, often cerebral narrative with a fine sense
of energy and movement.
In addition, the actors also participate in the authenticity
of their context, a world where tension and danger lurk beneath the surface,
where the only explosion of violence occurs as a complete and shocking surprise
that ironically demonstrates even deeper levels of treachery. Philip Seymour
Hoffman, as usual, excels as Bachmann, a weary, corpulent spymaster fueled by
cigarettes and booze, desperate and lonely, contending with both enemies and
allies, and apparently willing to do anything to track down his quarry.
Above all, once again faithful to the author’s vision, “A
Most Wanted Man” also shows the real meaning of espionage, its systematic
practice of manipulation and deceit, its endless layers
of betrayal. It illustrates the author’s continuing obsession with the morality
of people who consciously violate the laws they profess to defend, who use and
abuse innocent people to achieve a sometimes dubious goal. In its depiction of
electronic surveillance, the kidnaping of ordinary citizens off the streets of
a Western city, the imprisonment of victims without any charges, the icy
cruelty of professional bureaucrats pledged to wage a war against an
abstraction, the disregard for anything resembling simple human decency, it
actually reflects the world we all inhabit, like it or not.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2014.
