Watched: A Most Wanted Man (2014).
This was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last lead role, and it’s a powerful one - here, he plays Günther Bachmann, a German spy attempting to manipulate events so he can score a huge arrest. The plot here is dense, and slow to unfold, and rarely brings any surprises, but it’s fascinating to follow along and Hoffman lends a depth to his scenes that you wouldn’t expect out of other actors.
If there’s anything that threw me, it’s that this could have been a really good foreign film, but isn’t - Hoffman, Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe, all Americans, play in English with German accents throughout this film, without anything suggesting why. There are occasions when we hear the odd German sentence here and there, but some things don’t quite ring true - like why a meeting populated exclusively by German officials would be conducted in English.
If you can get past that, though, this is a brilliant if slow-burning thriller - one whose most exciting moment comes down to watching a man sign a piece of paper. That a moment like that is exciting is testament to the strength of the performances and the directorial skill on display.