A Most Wanted Man

Before I type anything, it's needless to say that the performances here are great. It's eery to see Philip Seymour Hoffman now, and this is a bona fide example of why he was amazing. He perfectly captures facial movements, vocal inflection, his German accent, and subtle movements like tapping a cigarette into an ashtray. I forgot that I was watching an actor at times, which is extremely rare for me to say. Rachel McAdams is surprisingly good; she's known at being funny and/or cute, but she does well here. The rest of the cast nicely does its job without overshadowing others. The direction is good, but not necessarily great. There are definitely very strong moments and you feel like you're in a cold European setting, but the movie is also very slow, which it doesn't really have a right to be. I was thoroughly interested for the first 70 minutes, but for the next 50 minutes, the film started to wear on me a bit. Some scenes are too long and some plot points are as clearly established as they could be, but you can still follow the story. The camerawork is a bit odd at some later scenes since it's handheld and strangely shaky (even though it's just people sitting at a table and talking). The movie is good, mostly thanks to the performances, but not great or up to par with slightly similar political thrillers like The Ghost Writer or Zero Dark Thirty, mostly due to its pace. I just wish that filmmakers would really listen to the "get into a scene as late as possible and leave it as early as possible" rule. This isn't an art film, so it's not like I'm going to be hypnotized by it, so make your point and move along. 7.6/10, good, one thumb up, above average, etc.