O Espião

Michael Caine plays Frank Jones, a war veteran and patriotic British citizen who is shocked to learn about the mysterious death of his son, who had worked as a Russian translator for British Intelligence. Frank reluctantly becomes convinced that his own government had his son killed because he was going to "blow the whistle" on illegal and unethical behavior by his employers. Not deterred by the usual "national security" defense of the killers, Frank is determined to bring his son's killers to justice, whether it be by legal or illegal means...

First-rate conspiracy drama has fine acting by all, and Caine quite believable as the grieving and outraged father. Film makes thoughtful observations about government secrets, and the "who watches the watchers?" debate. Worth seeking out.

"I still believe the man in the white hat always wins," Bob Jones (Nigel Havers) tells his father (Michael Caine). They'll both have reason to doubt that later on.

Caine plays Frank Jones, a man whose son works as a linguist at GCHQ. A mole for the Russians has been discovered, and since then, Bob Jones has become suspicious that something strange is going on, especially after there are a couple of "suicides." He confides in his father, who is concerned that Bob keep his job in a difficult economy, especially since he wants to marry a young woman with a child. She's in the process of getting a divorce.

When something happens to Bob, Frank tries to get to the bottom of it and learns some ugly truths, particularly when a journalist he is on his way to see meets with an unhappy end.

Michael Caine gives an excellent, touching performance as a man trying to make things right, and Nigel Havers is wonderful as his son. There are spot-on performances by James Fox, John Gielgud, Barry Foster, and Gordon Jackson in his final film.

Very good film, perhaps a bit dated now, with the British trying to keep the Americans as happy allies, and it doesn't give any final or easy answers. The novel was written in 1984, and this film was released in 1987.

A Brit on this board referred to this as a "Michael Caine filler" - I guess he has made a ton of films, but he's always worth seeing.

The Whistle Blower tells a story which is likely to be obsolete nowadays. The end of the cold war rendered stories of this nature difficult to perceive but was written at a time when relations between the US and USSR were strained and scandals were rife in British Intelligence and at GCHQ.

The film tells the story of a jittery secret service heavily reliant on American information to help keep the soviets at bay. It demonstrates how the service would have reacted to the allegation that there were soviet agents within organisations such as GCHQ and how they may have been dealt with. The eventual reasoning is cruel and cold and leaves the watcher wondering if events like this really did take place at the time.

The Whistle Blower tells a good story which is easy to follow and comprehend. It is bolstered by a good cast but let down by poor direction making it staid in places.

I notice that Netflix has this film listed under "Thrillers." It's not a thriller, but rather a fairly complex drama about what happens when people who are schooled not to trust anyone have almost unlimited power with no accountability. There's never a "stupid moment" in this film that reveals to us, the audience, or to Michael Caine as the protagonist, who the bad guys are or what they've done. We have to peel the layers off the onion along with Michael Caine. There is no James Bond ending in which the bad guys' island explodes and collapses into the sea. Instead, there is a real world ending tailored for adults. I liked the film.

The dreary plot in this film is made overly complicated by bad directing and poor editing. Caine, Fox, Gielgud and Havers have all been in much better films. Don't do as I did and watch this on the strength of the cast - they don't deliver, and if even they had it would not have rescued the trudging script of this thrill-less thriller. 3/10