bulbul_da_great

Yes, the production is slick, yes the cast is top notch. Four stars just for that. Everything else, however, is horrible. The plot is incomprehensible as it unfolds and the only clever part is almost immediately undone by a resolution that comes out of absolutely nowhere. The polygraph scene that heavily featured in the trailers was also entirely pointless as it served no actual purpose. Yes, we are meant to believe that it uncovered the psychologists deeply held religious beliefs (the Wiki entry even says something about her Catholic faith, of which there was no sign), but it did nothing of the sort. The second dinner was not the pinnacle of an investigation, it was just exposition.

And then there's the characters. The main guy (I did not even bother to remember his name) played by Fassbender is so obviously trying to be Smiley, but comes across as a dumb version of Data. We are supposed to believe he and his wife are in love, but there is no sign of that, with all the constant hostility and zero chemistry. The remaining characters are just the worst. It's one thing to portray spies as broken and imperfect people as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy et al. Does, it's a completely different one to have them portrayed as incompetent idiots with as much common sense as a drunk teenager. Of course, this can't be done without my favorite trope, where a cop or spy is just absolutely outraged that they might be under the teensiet-weensiet suspicion. This trope is dumb enough under normal circumstances, but in an intelligence agency, where polygraph is a part of quarterly evaluations, it's just ridiculous.

The dumbest thing about the movie was the line the writer is surely proud of: "When you can lie about everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?" When the horny female agent (again, won't bother to remember names) said this piece of nonsense out loud, I almost barfed.

In short, this is a dumb movie. Avoid it if you can.

The tagline in the in-flight entertainment menu that sold the movie to me was intriguing enough on its own, doubly so for a former translator. The cast did a great job (it was particularly wonderful to see Patrick Bauchau speaking French) and the first 40-50 minutes rolled out in a promising way. But once the main plot kicked in, it all went downhill. For one, the main twist could be seen from a mile away. More importantly, however, the whole pseudo-heist thing and the revelations that followed made no sense at all. The critique of capitalism in the literary scene - for which there was a lot of potential, from the slave-like conditions the translators worked in to the fact that their work gets recognition - fell flat, especially against the shallow drama. And ultimately, the movie ended up dealing in tired old tropes. What a waste.

... and yet, this one is such a dud. Which is a shame, because I love Italia Ricci and Chad Michael Murray is always a pleasure to watch. And yet, no one looked like they wanted to be there: CMM tried, but Ricci looked positively miserable and/or angry; whatever chemistry these two are capable of having, there was none of it present. The entire movie feels very by the numbers and there is nothing romantic about that. What a wasted opportunity.