Nosso Fiel Traidor

John le Carré does not exist. "John the Square" (as understood in French) is the pen name of British author David Cornwell. For those who don't know who he is, Cornwell is a former member of Great Britain's Security Service and, later, his country's Secret Intelligence Service (perhaps better known as MI5 and MI6, respectively). He left the spy game in 1964 to pursue his burgeoning career as a writer of espionage novels. Now, if none of this sounds familiar, maybe these titles will: "The Tailor of Panama", "The Constant Gardener", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "A Most Wanted Man". These are his novels which made it to the big screen just since the beginning of this century and have attracted the participation of actors Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz (who won an Oscar for her efforts). Writing as le Carré, one of Cornwell's more recent novels to become a feature film is "Our Kind of Traitor" (R, 1:48), a story which continues the author's tradition of setting his roller-coaster-like plots against a backdrop of big ideas, but this one is set in a greater variety of international locations than usual and has narrative that's been described as somewhat Hitchcockian.

Peregrine "Perry" Makepiece (Ewan McGregor) is a college professor whose marriage to successful attorney (barrister, to be specific), Gail Perkins (Naomie Harris) is going through a rough patch. He had recently slept with one of his students and he feels that his professional accomplishments are inferior to those of his wife. The couple takes a short vacation to Marrakesh, Morocco in an effort to put a spark back into their marriage. Instead, Perry ends up hanging out with a larger-than-life Russian man named Dima (Stellan Skarsgård) whom he meets in a local bar. In the space of just a couple days, Perry accepts Dima's generous but forceful invitations to drink together, to play tennis and to attend a couple parties. Gail joins Perry at the second party, but is unhappy about how it cuts into their alone time, and when Perry disappears for a while, Gail wonders what he's up to. Fortunately (and unfortunately) Perry is just talking privately with Dima, who reveals himself to be more than just a friendly Russian businessman.

Dima tells Perry that he launders money for the Russian mob and is concerned that he is about to be asked to "resign" (which would mean that Dima's family would end up "resigning" with him). Before any of that can happen, Dima wants to defect to the UK. He asks Perry to deliver to MI6 a memory stick with the names of British officials being bribed by the Russians to grease the skids for a major banking deal. Dima hopes this information will be enough for MI6 to grant asylum to Dima and his family in exchange for further intel. Dima says that Perry is the only one he can trust, and Perry is just kind and honorable enough to want to help save Dima and his family. Perry is also pretty naïve, thinking that he can "just" give the files to MI6 and be done. Perry soon finds out differently, as does Gail who also gets roped in.

An MI6 agent known as Hector (Damian Lewis) is keen to follow up on this lead, but it won't be easy. Hector's boss doesn't think there's enough to go on and thinks that Hector is motivated by revenge against a former supervisor (Jeremy Northam) who may be involved in the bribery scandal. So, Hector lies to his crew (and everyone else) about having permission to proceed and goes forward with his unauthorized operation – which involves civilians, no less. Hector establishes contact with Dima, but Dima refuses to deal with anyone but Perry. Thus, Perry and Gail head to Paris where they "accidentally" run into Dima, who is on his way to Switzerland to sign over to his new bosses the accounts that he manages. Then, as things get more dangerous, Perry and Gail get involved more and more deeply.

"Our Kind of Traitor" is a satisfying, but unremarkable thriller. Some of the plot points seem highly implausible and others feel underwritten. The story is well-constructed, but the acting (except for Skarsgård's) is listless and the entire film suffers from a lack of tension. Cornwell / le Carré novels often suffer somewhat in the process of adapting them to the big screen, but this one is still worth a look. "B"

A smooth thrill ride is how I would describe Our Kind of Traitor. I didn't realise until after watching it was based on a John LeCarre novel (i missed half the opening credits, my bad) but nobody does cool thriller like Carre.

I'm familiar with some of his other material and have seen a couple things turned into film also. This movie delivers man.

Its intense, deep character development, and sometimes you are changing what you want/think the outcome to be.

There are some majestic performances here by Stellan S. And Damian Lewis. Ewan Mac is gold as always, never seen a bad performance from him.

I really enjoyed this film. Held my attention all the way through. If you like films about espionage or the sort. This is something you might enjoy.

All in all just a really well made film. Worth the watch.

Overall Score 7/10 Entertainment Value 8/10 For a continuous plot that doesn't lose its way.

Good thriller from the master, John Le Carre, with some very interesting visuals by the director, Susanna White.

The story concerns a young couple (Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris) who meet a Russian, Dima (Stellan Skarsgard). It turns out that Dima wants something delivered to British intelligence, which the naive McGregor does. Dima is involved with the Russian mafia and he has information that will bring down corrupt politicians in London. When the couple delivers the flash drive to Hector (Damien Lewis) in British Intelligence, they find themselves embroiled in a dangerous situation.

Some real revelations here for me anyway - first of all, I've never heard Damien Lewis speak with his native British accent; second, I've never before considered Stellan Skarsgard as having any sex appeal. His portrayal of the loud, friendly, charismatic Dima is fantastic. With people like Lewis and Skarsgard in the cast, you know the acting will be top level, and it is. McGregor and Harris hold their own, as good people who can't walk away from Dima and his family.

Very good.

As a Le Carre fan, it is fair to say that the film made a reasonable attempt of faithfully representing the book, although there were a few changes to the story. The problem with the film is that the book wasn't that brilliant to start off with and with the exception of Stellan Skarsgård (who played Dima)the other actors did not seem to have much belief in the characters they played. Saying that, it is possible for a film to be an improvement on the book and maybe misplaced deference to the author got in the way of the director and actors attempting to make the story more credible and interesting.

Perry was too 'nice' so when he played a 'knight in shining armour' on a couple of occasions, it was slightly confusing. Damian Lewis's performance (who played Hector of MI6) verged on the embarrassing as he portrayed him as a bumbling upper class twit which I am sure is not the character trait of MI6 operatives.

Overall, the film was watchable, but disappointing, especially after viewing the 'Night Manager' recently on television.

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.