Rating: 
Summary: One bad movie
Review: I'm not a movie buff, but I have seen enough movies to know that this was a stinker. The plot was outrageous and only left me with the impression that our government and military are so stupid as to attack an entire country based on information from one foreign spy. I'm a Pierce Brosnan fan but was left very disappointed after wasting two hours watching this flop.
Rating: 
Summary: Bond and Helfgott, together at last
Review: I never read the novel by John LeCarre (or any LeCarre as of this writing), so I was able to go into this fresh. I was rather impressed. Pierce Brosnan plays against type as a villainous spy who enlists Geoffrey Rush to lie for him in order to--well, I don't really know why. The movie got so complicated and the lies came so fast, that I didn't realize it was out of hand until the FBI showed up.But, anyway, the ride is worth it, with excellent acting all around, including a cameo by writer Harold Pinter as Rush's old partner in tailoring with a secret. Rush is excellent as the titular tailor who is hiding something, and Jamie Lee Curtis is always good for a solid performance, and she does her best with the small role she plays here. But Brosnan is the surprise here, with a role that shows his range does not stop with James Bond (or Remington Steele, for that matter). Not a classic, but good for a fun time-filler.
Rating: 
Summary: Old-fashioned spy pic is long on character, short on action
Review: The Tailor of Panama is an old-fashioned thriller. It is high on character delineation, plot and well written, often witty dialog. It is low on action, which perhaps makes it a poor choice for those viewers who are addicted to the adrenaline rushes found in most current thrillers. For those who believe that adventure doesn't always have to be linked with action, it should make for a perfect evening's entertainment. Pierce Brosnan plays Andy Osnard, an intelligence agent for the British government. Don't expect to see him reprise his James Bond character. Andy is a sleazy, devious, self-obsessed guy, and the actor obviously delights in this change of pace. Perhaps one day they should make a Bond movie in which Brosnan also play's the hero's evil twin. That would be fun. Osnard has recently been caught having an embarrassing affair with someone's mistress in Spain. As punishment, the agency banishes him to Panama, where the Brits are keeping a close eye on the Panamanian government's controlling of the canal, that vital, strategic link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Our spy soon is going over a list of locals who might be able to give him information on the dealings of officials there. He settles on Harry Pendel [Geoffrey Rush], an exclusive tailor who advertises himself as being of London and Panama City. What Osnard knows is that Harry has no London connection. The man is a convicted felon who learned his trade in a British prison. He's the perfect stool pigeon. He dresses all the important men in the city, and Osnard has the information that could destroy his career. Better yet, Harry's wife, Louisa [Jamie Lee Curtis], happens to be the top aide to the man in charge of running the canal. Harry becomes a reluctant spy. As Osnard puts increasing pressure on him, the poor guy attempts to satisfy him by given him false information. Osnard realizes this but quickly sees that he can use these false claims for his own benefit. Everyone becomes trapped in a potentially lethal game. As in the best thrillers made twenty to thirty years ago, there is a lot of humor in The Tailor of Panama. Spying for a living is fertile ground for a few jokes because it is so contradictory. It is a profession in which deception is the primary tool for finding the truth. Brosnan, Rush and Curtis have a talent for comedy, and it's a pleasure watching them. it helps a great deal that the script provides them with some memorable lines to work with. Appropriately, director John Boorman was a major director in the 70s and was at the helm of such memorable hits as Deliverance and Excalibur. A decade later, he tired of Hollywood and returned to his native England where he concentrated on small, independent films and on theater. The Tailor of Panama is his return to bigger projects, and it's a welcome return. His style hasn't changed much in the last thirty years, but that's okay. One of the great things about the movies is that they are made by all sorts of people with all sorts visions and points of views. There's something for everyone, and Tailor of Panama may be something for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Stitch in Time...
Review: Based on the John LeCarre novel, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA is a quick sprint through the essentials of that rather slow-moving book. Geoffrey Rush plays The Tailor of Panama, Harry Pendel, bespoke haberdasher to the power elite of that small but crucial Central American country. Harry has some deep, dark secrets, but he has built himself into a seemingly successful businessman. Pierce Brosnan plays British spy Andy Osnard, who recruits Harry as a "source" regarding Panamanian politics. Harry's customers all seem to confide state secrets in their tailor, and what they don't confide, Harry invents out of whole cloth, as it were. Harry's imaginative embellishments of slight truths fuel Osnard's ambitions (both positive and negative), and ultimately lead to a major international incident, based on Harry's tall tales and Osnard's scheming. Although everyone from the President of the United States on down to Harry's shopgirl suspects the whole Panamanian "problem" doesn't really exist, nobody wants to be the one who backs down and risks looking foolish. ... Rush is likeable as Harry, a nebbish of a man who just wants to seem important to somebody, anybody. He's a storyteller, whose inventive fibbing turns deep black courtesy of Osnard, a pathological liar. Jaime Lee Curtis is miscast as Pendel's wife, Louisa. Curtis behaves far too intelligently to be taken in by either Pendel or Osnard, yet Louisa only catches on to the truth at the end. And amazingly, forgives Harry, although he is primarily responsible for a phantom coup d'etat. Pierce Brosnan is excellent as the amoral and underhanded Osnard, though in reality an agent with as little credibility as Osnard would be quickly found out. A washed up civil servant with selfish motives, Osnard is an inverted James Bond. His superiors are all embittered at being assigned to Panama, a backwater posting in the American sphere of influence, a fact which motivates them to keep the tall tales growing. The fact that Osnard is successful at his spy games is no reassurance.
"The truth will out"? Not in Panama, apparently.
The atmosphere of the movie is reminiscent of 1940s-era productions like NOW, VOYAGER, spiced with ironic humor, and dark wit. As Pendel says to Osnard at one point, tipping his hat to Bogart, "Welcome to Panama! Casablanca without heroes!" which is the best one line description of this movie anywhere. This film is neither great nor particularly memorable, but it's a fun couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon before the Director yells "Cut!" Or was that my tailor? Hmmmmmm...
Rating:
Summary: Smooth and Sophisticate
Review: This is a heady movie and not for the low brow. If you appreciate it, then you know what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Negative five star rating!!
Review: I didn't realize Brosnan's career was over. He must have needed work BAD or had never been within one hundred miles of the script until the day filming started!Watching this bomb was an absoulutly regretable experience.
Rating:
Summary: Pierce Brosnan & John LeCarre have a sense of humor
Review: Brosnan's turn as a "bizarro" James Bond is perfect. Geoffrey Rush's best performance since Shine but Jamie Lee Curtis seems out of place as his wife.
Rating:
Summary: A Bit too Tricky for its own Good...
Review: THE TAILOR of PANAMA has a lot going for it. Pierce Brosnan is fascinating playing unctious antithesis of his 007 persona.MI-6 reprobate Andrew Osnard is a sleeze(Brosnan has not essayed such characterization since THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY where he played a bisexual predator and IRA gunman),lacking conscience and allegiance to anything greater than his appetites. Geoffrey Rush is good as Harry Pendel. He is a Graham Greene COMEDIANS-type spinning lies (SOMEONE'S trying to "$teal" the Panama Canal, post its President Carter-supported '99 cession) and fantasy into farcical intrigue having more in common with Monty Python than tawdry worlds of espionage typically rendered by John Le Carre. Le Carre is literary master of the modern spy tale. PANAMA TAILOR has elements of betrayal, human weakness, and reluctant heroism that defined his epic TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY both as novel and film. The movie version (starring Sir Alec Guiness)was deliberately paced, dramatic and tragic. This John Boorman directed-Le Carre scripted TAILOR lacks wallop. Is it because burnt-out narcisscists like Brosnan/Osnard, or fool's fool Rush can neither engage our sympathy nor secret admiration (of their imagined audacity)like GEORGE SMILEY that THE TAILOR OF PANAMA ultimately fails? Or is it COLD WAR tragedy does not easily appeal as post-Cold War/ PM farce? I don't know. But the film... though worth watching...strikes me much like its generally unlikeable characters:too tricky for its own good(3 1/2 stars)...
Rating: 
Summary: Tailored with a misguided plot and repulsive characters.
Review: Sassy as its cast may be, despite their often-ludicrous characters and the ridiculous situations they encounter, "The Tailor of Panama" isn't a very remarkable movie, nor does it leave a lasting impression once the final, ending surprise rolls around. The movie itself is tailored around the notion that a simple lie can lead to catastrophic results, and I could live with this lesson, if not for its baffling turn of events once things start getting out of hand. British MI-6 agent Andy Osnart (Pierce Brosnan), demoted from his usual dealings in London for bedding a higher-up's mistress, is assigned to Panama to keep tabs on the balance of power over the canal. Seeking out vital information, he befriends the local tailor, Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), who is only to eager to contrive stories and fabrications about a plan to hand over the Panama Canal to one of three possible purchasers, unaware that while he thinks he's leading Andy on, he's really the one being played for a fool. With a plot as detailed as this, vital clues are important; unfortunately, the movie has little of them. Much of these so-called "clues" are merely Harry's wildly imaginative stories, which include subplots that involve one of his best friends and his own secretary. He even uses his own wife, who works for those in control of the canal, taking pictures of her confidential yet useless documents as a ploy to try and buy time from Andy, who keeps up the pretense of impatience while in Harry's company, but sees fit to kick back and relax, confident that his own plans will carry through. For the most part, the first two acts of the movie are fashioned somewhat impressively, beginning in a tedious manner and then elevating the interest as Harry gets himself in deeper. As the mysteries and subplots begin to unfold and reveal themselves, we get a grasp on the situation, only to have it all thrown out the window with a third act that is neither impressive nor eye-opening. As if this weren't enough, the characters themselves are completely repulsive. Brosnan plays his 007-ish Andy with great gusto, but his character is such a lewd, unnecessarily disgusting character that it's hard not to wince. Rush is reduced to little more than a whining, bumbling idiot as Harry the motor-mouthed tailor, while actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Catherine McCormack are wasted as Harry's faithful, suspicious wife, and Andy's bed buddy, respectively. "The Tailor of Panama" doesn't go down very easily, given the fact that it wants to be comical and serious simultaneously. This identity crisis between serio-comedy and action thriller prevents it from being little more than a messy, uneven attempt, with a population of characters who spend the entire movie acting like fools rather than spies and tailors.
Rating:
Summary: unsatisfying but worthwhile venture
Review: In "The Tailor of Panama," Pierce Brosnan plays a sort of evil version of his James Bond persona, a womanizing British spy more concerned with his own personal aggrandizement than with duty to queen and crown and all those virtues we, parochially, tend to think of as uniquely "Western" - virtues like liberty, freedom and democracy. Based on John Le Carre's novel of the same name, "The Tailor of Panama" is not quite so positive in its assessment of the West's innate benevolence. It is, in fact, an attack on the evils of the modern nation-building process, wherein developed countries like the United States and Great Britain engage in all sorts of covert skullduggery in an effort to protect their own strategic interests in the Third World community. If this involves propping up or installing immoral regimes - or toppling potentially moral ones - that, as Le Carre sees it, is all part of the game we naively call "international diplomacy." The setting of the film is Panama City right after the takeover of the canal by the Panamanians. Fearful that its interests might soon be threatened, the British government sends one of its own secret agents, Andy Osnard, to ferret out some British citizen who may have contacts with the authorities in the city and may, therefore, be privy to information pertinent to their concerns. Andy alights on Harry Pendel, a good-natured, idealistic tailor who does, indeed, seem to have some entree with the higher-ups in the local government. Harry also happens to be married to Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), who actually works supervising the canal, so, of course, Harry can be quite an informative source of information if he happens to put his mind to it. Andy, knowing that Harry has a few major debts to pay off, moves in for the kill and engages Harry's efforts. The only problem is that Harry, beyond being impeccably moral, also loves to spin a fantastic yarn or two, and Andy has to figure out whether the information Harry is feeding him is really the truth or just the product of an overactive imagination. The complexity of the plotting works both for and against the film. On the one hand, the audience has a fun time following the narrative along its complicated mazelike path, meeting interesting people and visiting unusual sites along the way. Moreover, we are afforded a fascinating glimpse into the sleazy world of backstage nation-building in a so-called "Banana Republic." On the other hand, we often find ourselves a bit confused as to the why and wherefore of many of the actions, and, far worse, the movie never establishes enough of a quality of credibility to make us believe it all. This is certainly the case in the film's final stretches when the too-easily duped U.S. and British governments launch an all-out attack on the city based on only the flimsiest of evidence. Yet, perhaps, that is Le Carre (and director John Boorman's) thesis: that such takeovers are often rooted in causes that are circumstantial, prefabricated or totally beside the point. If this is the case, both the writer and the director have failed to create the tone necessary to pull off such a sophisticated idea. For, although there are flashes of sharp humor shot throughout the entire film, the general ambience is never far-out and witty enough for us to classify the work as satirical. As a result, the final scenes seem somehow more silly than provocative. This is not, however, to suggest that "The Tailor of Panama" is not a worthwhile and interesting film. In fact, it succeeds almost on the strength of its performances alone. Brosnan does a superb job poking fun at his signature spy persona, as he utilizes his trademark suavity to get exactly what he wants - be it information, a load of cash, or a roll in the hay with a gorgeous female companion. As the title character, Geoffrey Rush delivers yet another outstanding performance, somehow managing to make Harry seem both incredibly weak and amazingly strong at the same time. In fact, Rush, quite literally, carries this film, earning the audience's sympathy from beginning to end. Curtis turns in her usual fine performance, although her role seems a bit undernourished compared to those of the two male leads. "The Tailor of Panama," although ultimately unsatisfying, comes pretty damn close to being a worthwhile success.
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