DVD: A Most Wanted Man

Günther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a German secret service agent relegated to Hamburg to atone for a failure in Beirut. The hard-drinking, heavy-smoking operative wheezes toward rooting out a suspected al-Qaida funder when a half-Russian, half-Chechen arrives in Hamburg looking to retrieve his father’s fortune. 

Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) carries with him secrets and scars on his back as he looks for asylum and a way to rid himself of the foul fortune his father amassed. Issa meets idealistic young lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), who begins to help him but questions his story and his intent in Hamburg during the paranoid post 9-11 days. The plot thickens as the Americans become interested in Issa, and Bachmann is left trying to maintain his ethics in a morally ambiguous time.

“A Most Wanted Man” is the late Hoffman’s final film, and his genius is on full display here. Although he, and just about every other non-German in the film, display pretty awful German accents, the flaw doesn’t detract too much from this slow cooker of a thriller. Based on a John le Carré novel of the same name, “A Most Wanted Man” is a nice antidote to the slick, fast-paced James Bond and Jason Bourne thrillers. It shows that espionage is largely made up of tedious work, long hours and terrible ambiguity.

The film is also beautiful. Director Anton Corbijn skillfully blends the grays of damp Hamburg with the murky shades of right and wrong the characters must navigate as they decide what to do and whom to trust. 

“A Most Wanted Man” (2014) Directed by Anton Corbijn, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright. Rated R, 122 minutes.