The Tailor of Panama film review

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THE TAILOR OF PANAMA

Adapting any work by John Le Carre must be a tricky business. There’s the albatross of the brilliant television series based on his George Smiley character which makes any other adaptation pale in comparison. The complex nature of his spy thrillers has resulted in some turkeys (The Little Drummer Girl), some successes (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold), and some which fall in between (The Russia House). In a post Cold War world his very British sense of espionage may appear outdated and overly intellectual for a mass cinema-going audience.

Kudos must go therefore to all those involved in the making of The Tailor of Panama, adapted from Le Carre’s 1996 novel. This is a raucous, surprisingly amusing and postmodern spy thriller which subverts our expectations and is for most of the time highly entertaining. Sure, it is intelligent and may be a little hard to follow at times but its breezy style and sense of confidence make it a treat for anyone seeking an antidote to run of the mill action movies.

Director John Boorman has the pedigree to deal with any subject matter (Deliverance, Excalibur, The General) and cleverly casts Pierce Brosnan in the lead role as the misogynistic and selfish British intelligence officer Andy Osnard. This is a far cry from Brosnan’s Bond: he divests himself of all of 007’s charm and becomes a foul-mouthed and egocentric spy . Typical is his approach to women: ‘Sure, we can spend six months getting to know each other but wouldn’t it be easier if we jumped in the sack right now’? After getting into unspecified trouble in his previous role (probably involving women or money, or both), Osnard is despatched to Panama to find out all he can about suspected problems over the maintenance of the all-important canal.

Osnard’s first port of call is to the tailor to the rich and famous, Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush). Although Pendel puts on the air of a simple clothier, Osnard is quick to point out that he has him rumbled and knows all about the dubious (and illegal) reasons why Pendel was forced to flee his Savile Row establishment. Surely, Osnard enquires, Pendel must hear all sorts of juicy titbits while measuring his political customers. It also helps that Pendel’s wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) works in the Panama Canal office and that his friends (including Brendan Gleeson in an unlikely but convincing role) were part of the anti-Noriega rebellion in the 1980s.