The Operative

Good film, YES you have to pay attention. The first half of the film is excellent , it gets choppy and the narrative nearly goes off the rails.

There s a key moment in the film when the handler meets the main character's father, "The liberal Englishman academic", who is horrified of the thought of Israel. This is a position I have never seen said out loud in film or print by WESTERN media. Its tectonic. I was really surprised because Israel is an artifice, (its just no one admits it).

The acting is amazing as usual Martin Freeman steals the movie (he has nearly taken over from Phillip Seymour Hoffman) , and. Diane Kruger is EXCELLENT !

When a young woman is recruited by the Mossad, she is sent to Tehran to work undercover. However she soon warms to the place and people and this may risk not only her career but also the plans of her employers. The Operative is one of those slow spy thrillers, it takes its time to build the characters and attempts are made to connect audiences to Diane Kruger's character. However the actual presentation of the story has some real pacing issues where I lost the plot many times. I get that this is meant to be a character driven film. But film makers such as Polanski (Chinatown) and Sydney Pollack (Three Days of the Condor) have shown that the plot can take a backseat for characters. But there was still considerable amount of strings being pulled in the background to make it work. The stories were complex because there were many details that need to be uncovered. The Operative is convoluted because there is very little within the story and therefore the film makers try to hide that by dragging scenes out. By having scenes that are completely pointless. Diane Kruger is an extremely talented actress and this may actually be her best performance of her career. Her character is relatable to audiences but mysterious for them to ask the question who she really is. The rest of the cast feels rather wasted with other players including Martin Freeman, pop in and out of the picture. The movie on a technical level is competent but nothing shows of a unique vision. This makes The Operative feel like a generic spy caper that isn't even exciting. Perhaps if you browse by this film on Netflix and have nothing else to do, The Operative might be a film for that occasion. Otherwise, no recommendation from me.

Good Cast. But the whole film built up to a climax that never happened. Ultimately dissapointing.

I think this movie shows relatively realistic image of Iran , Iranian people and clash between Iran and Israel. As an Iranian I enjoyed the movie. unlike some of similar movies about Iran , all Iranian characters are good hearted people with no Iranian interrogators or such. also I like that -despite having Israeli production- the involvement of Mossad on Iranian scientist assassination and sabotaging Iran's nuclear program is depicted without hesitation. Acting was good and Iran's streets and atmosphere shown believable and almost perfect ... there is no Opel Astra police cars or old Volvo Station wagons in Iran though. I gave is 8 of 10.

Diane Kruger is a very special beauty. And a very talented actress. A unique personality. This is her movie, she's on screen almost all the time. Martin Freeman is very natural and credible in the role of Thomas. Cas Anvar is just as good in the role of Farhad. But the film could have been much better, there are gaps in the script and in directing. Just 5 stars, all for Diane Kruger and the other actors.