The Tailor of Panama

Rating:
Summary: Wasted effort
Review: Without a doubt this is one of the most alienating productions for otherwise good contributors; LeCarre and Brosnan. Having served in "the trade" from my twenties, I have encountered more than enough of the reprehensible elements that serve the intelligence field. But "Tailor" serves no redeeming message at all. If only to portray the negatives of human nature of some participants the field, the effort was wasted.

Rating:
Summary: It¿s Hard to Know Where to Start
Review: John LeCarre has written some of the finest spy craft novels ever penned in the genre. His novels are not the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy, nor do they get as busy as Robert Ludlum's work, both of whom have also written some great tales. One style that Mr. LeCarre has never written is farce, and that is what, "The Tailor Of Panama", is. No one who has read the novels this man has written could take this movie seriously, and many would not bother to finish this mess at all. I watched it over two days in smaller painful doses.

Pierce Brosnan is a wonderful James Bond, in this film he works for his majesty's secret service once again. He is shipped to Panama as he is incompetent and unable to come within 50 yards of a female without attempting a conquest, but even this aspect of his character is ludicrous.

One of the gems uttered by Mr. Brosnan are, "I'll lead", when he meets his agent in an all male bar. I admit watching him dance with Geoffrey Rush bordered on funny, but never quite got past pathetic. Rush's character is that of a tailor, his brilliant dialogue is filled with the following nonsense as he looks at the body of a friend, "he would not have shot himself if I had finished his new suit". How did the Academy ever miss this film?

In the end it is a toss up as to whether the English or the Americans are portrayed as the greater group of fools. The Keystone Cops were never this inept, and how any of the, "actors", could keep a straight face when having high level underground meetings at The Pentagon is beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. Yu will recognize none of the participants as they must have picked people off the street to play these roles.

This is easily a prominent member of, "the worst films I have ever seen club". Please do not even rent this tragedy, read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Worst movie in history
Review: Where to start? This thing is so bad that it is a disgrace to bad melodrama. The plot is so predictable it is sickening. This movie wasn't even released until after Harry Potter was released.

Rating:
Summary: When Lies Run Amok
Review: If you want to follow this movie, you will need to stay seated and focus. Lies are running on different levels of this movie and will require your attention to follow them. Not only do people tell lies to make things easier for themselves, but also because that is exactly what the audience wants to hear.

Geoffrey Rush plays an ex-convict who has moved to Panama to start his life over again as a tailor. He is down on his luck but refuses to accept this. He lies to his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, by not telling her how bad their investment is doing. His banker lies to him by not telling him that the banker himself knows more about the property than he is letting on.

Along comes Pierce Brosnan who has been sent to Panama by MI6 in Englad because of some indiscretion. Rather than being told he is sent for punishment, his superior sugarcoats and "lies" by telling him there are many things an intelligence officer needs to do there. Once in Panama, he contacts Rush and convinces him to make introductions and give him information. This combination creates a new web of lies that rapidly go out of control.

Watching Brosnan as a cad threw me off a bit. I think of James Bond and Remington Steele so seeing him curse and lie is a little disconcerting. He does pull it off though.

I would recommend seeing this movie.

Rating:
Summary: "Casablanca without heroes."
Review: Enjoyable outing from good ole John Boorman and John Le Carre, on whose novel this film is based. (Le Carre also wrote the screenplay.) Judging from the overall star-rating here at Amazon -- 2 1/2 stars -- *The Tailor of Panama* might be just a tad too dry, a tad too character-driven, a tad too intellectual, a tad too close-to-home (i.e., foreign policy, USA- and UK-style) for most viewers. Let it be said that the works of John Le Carre are for liberals, just as the works of Ian Fleming were for conservatives. And those who flock to 007 movies and spy flicks in general are probably in no mood for any fuss or muss about the decency or lack thereof of our Intelligence organizations, nor are they likely to be patient with any time expended on character development or due attention paid to a credible setting -- in this case, the 3rd World glory of post-Noriega Panama. (The latter being a proud creation of American ingenuity.) However, the critics of this movie ARE on firm ground by complaining about the ceaseless and largely futile attempts by Le Carre and Boorman, not exactly the funniest men around, to be witty. The "sophisticated" wisecracks throughout reminds one of similar stuff from 1960's English cinema, and is as stale as you'd expect. If there's anything "witty" about the movie, it's the casting of Pierce Brosnan, the current 007, as Andy Osnard, a character who is an ANTI-007: no Truth, Justice, and the British Way about THIS cad. After sleeping with one diplomat's wife too many, MI6 banishes Osnard to godforsaken Panama. It doesn't take the snake very long to get the lay of the land, make the right contacts (one of whom is ex-con Geoffrey Rush, now tailor to the local gov't bigwigs), start some totally fabricated trouble involving a deal between Panama and the Japanese that would hand the Canal over to the latter, concoct a faux "resistance movement", bed a couple of key ladies, etc. . . . the main point of all this being to earn redemption in MI6's eyes and get the hell out of Panama. The plot, taken as a whole, is implausible. But the notions of human gullibility, especially and ironically among those who literally tell lies for a living (intelligence agents), and the suffering of those "on the ground" (in this case, Panamanian citizens) as a result of all these macho-boy games played by superpower spies, are HIGHLY plausible.

Rating:
Summary: The Tailor has a few tricks up his sleeve
Review: If you are expecting a dark, nervous spy thriller, you'd better look elsewhere. But if you are in the mood for something a little out of the ordinary, something darkly humourous, then you may enjoy Tailor of Panama as much as I did.

The director, John Boorman, directed Deliverance, and also Excalibur, the Year of Living Dangerously and Zardoz (a futuristic film with Sean Connery in a red loin cloth and a large flying stone head.) So you can see that Boorman can be a bit, well, unusual. In The Tailor of Panama, he takes us for quite a ride.

Brosnan plays Andy Osnard, a disgraced spy with a penchant for other men's wives. This peccadillo is gracefully overlooked by the higher-ups until he oversteps himself and goes after another man's mistress. MUCH worse, so Osnard is exiled to crummy Panama, where everthing is for sale and nothing is the real goods. He meets Harry Pendel, ably played by Geoffrey Rush, a tailor to the powerbrokers and ex-con. Osnard drags the hapless tailor into a web of espionage and blackmail. But Pendel has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The cast is excellent, and the filming adds an interesting surreal tone by careful control of the lighting. If you are in the mood for something a little different in the spy genre, you might enjoy The Tailor of Panama.

Rating:
Summary: Unusually Well Crafted
Review: THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD is, arguably, the most tightly plotted novel ever written in English; so it is hardly a surprise when the author who gave us that small masterpiece acts as both writer and executive producer that the product is as well crafted as is THE TAILOR OF PANAMA. Equally well done is Brosnan's use of anti-Bond characteristics to create a credible, gone-to-seed, slightly paunchy, crude intelligence operative who is undoubtedly far more true-to-life than anything he has given us before. At the very center of the plot is a factual account of actions undertaken by former president Bush as director of the CIA. That alone would be worth the price of admission as it clearly shows the foundations upon which our present national scandals are built (greed as repugnant as Noriega himself), but that is only the starting point for Le Carre. This is a movie for those who don't mind thinking as they watch--if you believe Lucas's franchise wisdom-filled, you might want to stick with film that stars special effects. The 'special effects' in this movie are both integral and, sadly, the most missed of all effects in most recent movies: tight plotting, sterling performances, intelligent editing, credible characters well recognized. Brosnan's performance would be a show stealer were it not for the fact that Rush is equally as good as the tailor and Curtis as good as I've ever seen her; the supporting cast adds immeasurably as well. This movie is far too well done to have attained the lowest-common-denominator market niche that makes for great financial return, so if this one slipped in and out of your local theatres before you got a chance to see it by all means buy a copy and enjoy a story intended for an audience with a bit more sophistication than the rather tiresome ground zero of all those movies aimed at hormone-addled seventeen year olds just discovering estrus.

Rating:
Summary: Worth seeing for the uninetentional comedy
Review: One of the most spectacularly inept movies of all time-an absolute career killer for brosnan. I gave it an extra star because it scores exceptionally high on the "so bad it's funny scale". The sex scenes are an absolute must-see.

Rating:
Summary: A fine all-around movie
Review: I just had a few miscellaneous comments to make about the movie.

My introduction to LeCarre's work was "The Perfect Spy," and I've had considerable respect for him ever since, except for the fact that you don't ever want him to describe your face. In that book, he was always noticing the sweat or moisture on people's faces. He'll make you sound like a greasy, second-story man.

That having been said, John LeCarre excels at portraying the seamy, unglamorous side of spywork, and this story is probably one of his best. Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush did a fine job in their respective roles, I thought. Brosnan projects a more sinister persona than he has up till now as the ruthless MI.6 operative, Osnard, and Rush is really excellent in the role as the prevaricative tailor, weaving his web of fantastic intelligence data for Osnard even as Osnard snares him in his own web of international intrigue.

All in all a fine flick. Big Steve says go see it and don't hog the popcorn.

Rating:
Summary: Worst movie I've seen in quite a while
Review: I can't believe there are reviews giving this movie more than one star! It is a very bad movie. The dialog is muffled and hard to hear in parts, the plot very thin, acting mediocre. Stay away from this movie, or at least rent it and see how bad it is first.

Geoffrey Rush does a good job, as good as can be expected from this weak script.