A Most Wanted Man - Review

A Most Wanted Man Review.

A Most Wanted Man, one of late Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s last performances, is essentially a thriller about the paranoia of terrorism directed by Anton Corbjin (Control, The American). The film focuses on a Muslim Russian, Issa (Dobrygin) who has come to Germany illegally and is considered by the Russian government to be an extremely dangerous terrorist. An espionage agent who focuses on Muslims gathers information on this Russian and believes him to also be a terrorist. Issa gains a lawyer (Rachel McAdams) who goes out of her way to help him by getting in touch with banker (Willam Dafoe) involving money that Issa’s father had left him.

The film is very dialogue based and has little action unlike a lot of espionage thrillers are; this trait requires a lot of attention whilst watching and a lot of patience as it can be slightly paced out at times. The acting is definitely the main praise of this film; Phillip Seymour Hoffman is always good in everything I’ve seen him in and it really is a loss to the film industry that he’s passed. Dobrygin gives a very captivating performance, showing vulnerability and honesty.

Speaking of honesty, this is a film that lacks it. The whole film is very paranoid about Muslims being terrorists and almost everybody in the film is unfaithful to someone one way or another, including Rachel McAdams who seems to be very genuine towards Issa. The irony about it all that the only character in the film that is completely honest throughout is Issa who is completely misunderstood in the film.

The characters’ performances in A Most Wanted Man definitely make this film worth watching as they give off so much emotion you actually care about the outcome. My only problem would be is I wasn’t particularly happy with the ending – I usually like ambiguous ends that let the viewer decide what happens but in this instance I left wanting to know the future of the characters.