Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Grigony Dobrygin, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Daniel Bruhl, Nina Hoss

Directed By: Anton Corbjin

This might be the last film role of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, aside from whatever repurposing they do for the Hunger Games movies. He’s really good here, as a man struggling to find the truth in a post 9/11 world where so often we are not looking for the truth, but rather someone to blame. This is not really a pro-America film, and in order to explain why I like the film, you’ll find out why. So… spoilers ahead!

First though, why I initially wasn’t a fan of the film. It takes a long time to set up. The film is noticeably long, and slow to actually get going. It’s like watching a really long chess game, and then finding out in the end that one of the guys was a chessmaster and was plotting the whole time. Then you stop and wonder, then why not finish him in a few moves? Why wait this long? Because he can. Because he’s so good that he can see 124 moves into the game.

The payoff is the ending, where in the last five minutes, Hoffman is brutally betrayed by the CIA. We’ve spent the whole movie learning that perhaps Issa (Dobrygin) isn’t the monster he’s proclaimed to be. Maybe he really is trying to make things right. Hoffman eventually figures that out, and it looks like everyone is going to win until ‘Murica steps in with their big sweeping CIA arms and kicks the damn door down. The final moments of the film are the best, because it’s this massive payoff to watching a slow movie. Finally you go “I GET IT NOW!” and you almost forgive the films sins.

I did say almost. This film does have a killer ending, and solid performances from the cast, but it does move rather slow for the majority of the film. I can’t completely forgive that. You can be more interesting and still have a killer ending. It’s possible.

FINAL GRADE: B-