Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
A young Oxford academic and his attorney girlfriend holiday in Morocco. They bump into a Russian millionaire who owns a peninsula and a diamond watch. He wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the lovers on a tortuous journey to the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's intelligence establishment, to Paris and the Alps.
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The greatest movie ever made..!
Excellent, a Must See
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Not the best big-screen adaptation of a John LeCarre novel but even a second-rate LeCarre offers its pleasures. The plot of "Our Kind of Traitor" may be a tad far-fetched but then the plots of most good spy yarns often are. The Cold War having ended it's the Russian Mafia who take centre-stage here and as the Russian oligarch who wants to defect Stellan Skarsgard is one of the best things in the picture. Indeed, it's well cast throughout, (Damian Lewis is particularly good as a cynical MI6 operative), and typically there is some nice location work nicely shot by DoP Anthony Dod Mantle. If the director Sussana White doesn't do anything particularly innovative with the material at least she doesn't muck things up. Minor, then, but also surprisingly entertaining, too.
Naomi Harris but it seemed the males were not vert strong personalities. It was a decent rendering then again it seemed like a contract obligation by Le Carre towards what contract he currently has with what publisher. The action wasn't the problem as much as the sub plot was bare bones.. As many have stated a fairly predictable plot. For me it was akin to 'the Night Manager' then again perhaos tis was Le Carre 'borrowing' heavily from that script to flesh out a 6 episode series for Tom Huddleston, Hugh Laurie et. al..Daniel Lewis was at his best - controlled but believable. The best rendition of a Le Carre was the old 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' with Alec Guiness 'because' it had the luxury of stretching out the plot over 7 episodes nearly 40 years ago (1979).
Our Kind of Traitor is a solid but dull film with a lot of foreign location shooting but it is also rather predictable.I understand that some of the people who worked on the BBC television series The Night Manager also worked in this film. Whereas the long form television series managed to maintain its tension and had several well staged set pieces throughout its running length. This was lackluster.Perry (Ewan McGregor) a lecturer and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) a lawyer are on holiday in Marrakesh. Perry is invited to party with Dima (Stellan Skarsgård) a brash Russian who is really a financier for a Russian mobster.Dima asks for Perry's help to save his family by becoming a MI6 informant as he has information on British financiers and politicians who have laundered money for the Russian underworld. Perry needs to contact a sympathetic MI6 agent.It is well acted especially by Skarsgård but it all feels rather restraint.
Awful movie, painful to watch. Hardly any resemblance to LeCarre's splendid book. In fact, IMO, the only decent movie that's been made from a LeCarre novel was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness. The others were overly violent in a bid to attract the youth audience and insufficiently political.If you think that LeCarre's story is not relevant, may I remind you that at this moment we are very close to engaging in a cold war with Russia again. All it takes is one foolish word from either Trump or Putin and we will be right back where we were 50 years ago.I don't think the world of international spying is kaput. With modern technology, spying is ubiquitous.