A Most Wanted Man
Directed by Anton Corbijn
- thriller
The story
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team tracking the movements of potential terrorists.
What it’s like
Muted, rain-dulled Hamburg in cold grey light: long, patient compositions of harbour fog, drab office interiors under humming fluorescents, and the blue-green glow of surveillance monitors in dim rooms. Anton Corbijn frames his people from a distance and holds the shot while they think, so the film breathes slowly, with long pauses and quiet walks along the Elbe. The score is sparse and low, a few tense piano notes that sit under long stretches of ambient city hum. Intensity is restrained: there is interrogation and a brief, ugly torture scene handled through implication and reaction rather than gore, with some sharp, sudden violence late on. The emotional register is weary, wary and morally grey, and the arc follows a hardened spymaster and his team slowly and reluctantly weighing trust against the cost of believing the wrong person. It suits a quiet, rainy evening when you want a grown-up thriller that unfolds through atmosphere and conversation rather than chases. It is for viewers who enjoy slow-burn spy stories, Philip Seymour Hoffman's understated performance, and bleak, procedural moods.
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