I became aware of Anton Corbijn thanks to his last film, the George Clooney vehicle The American back in 2010. I thought that movie was impressive and while George acts the same in almost every single movie he's been in, I thought Anton got the best performance from him other than Soderbergh's Ocean movies. Little did I know that I had been a fan of Anton years before that thanks to his music video background. Three of my favorite bands, Metallica, U2, and Depeche Mode have had a number of videos helmed by Mr. Corbijn. Then he did a movie I caught on cable one night that fascinated me called Control and though I still wasn't aware of him, I liked his style. It's that style A Most Wanted Man is completely immersed in. While he doesn't wow you with spectacular shots or use imaginative camera angles, Anton Corbijn's style is a straight ahead, non stop, coming at you juggernaut which is what any film adaptation of a John Le Carre spy novel needs. It doesn't need distractions or subterfuge, those won't do. It needs to grab you by your imagination and not ever let it go and that's just what this film does.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Gunther, the head of a German intelligence agency in Hamburg. He runs a small knit but very effective team of agents who seem to work perfectly together. His rival, Karl is played by Franz Hartwig and the two don't trust each other and they border on hating each other. Gunther is on the trail of Issa, played by Grigoriy Dobrygin, an escaped convict from a Russian gulag. Gunther wants to know why Issa has turned up in Germany and wants to bring him in for questioning. Karl wants Issa for himself and seeks to snatch Issa off the streets and away from Gunther. The big surprise for me regarding this film was the cast. Robin Wright, the only one that can hold her own next to Phillip plays Martha Sullivan, the US Ambassador to Germany, but who is really a high ranking CIA operative. Rachel McAdams, who's seemed to have found her niche overseas plays the good intentioned lawyer Annabel Richter who of course has taken on Issa as a client. Then there is also the amazing Willem Dafoe as banker Tommy Brue, a man with close ties to Issa's family and has a lot of money sitting in his bank in an account started by Issa's father. Gunther wants to use Issa's money to get close to a philanthropic man who he suspects is a jihadist and funneling money to terrorist organizations named Abdullah, played by the great Homayoun Ershadi. That's when things go horribly wrong for pretty much everybody.
A Most Wanted Man isn't a feast for the eyes. It's a drab looking film who's leading man is a chain smoking slob of a man who seems uncomfortable in his clothes. Instead of that Wanted Man is a feast for the mind. It's move and counter move, a game of chess with people as the pieces and Germany as the chess board. The music by composer Herbert Groenemeyer helps keep the tension tight throughout the film but doesn't distract at all. Herbert scored Anton's The American and while I truly enjoyed that score, this was a better marriage of music and image, a job well done. I would highly recommend Wanted Man if you want to see an actor at his best, one who will most undoubtedly receive an Oscar nomination and may even get his performance rewarded with a statue. If you don't care about that then I would still rush out to see it if you like great acting and even better storytelling, and I'll see you at the theater.
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