On the Independence Day holiday, my wife and I were having fun time of Pokémon hunting in Grand Indonesia mall. I believe those reading my post here would know the hype this game was creating in the world and would be able to appreciate our love for the game. Since we have the day to ourselves, we also decided to watch a new movie playing in the theater in that mall. We chose this one, since the other movies were either a sequel to a movie that I had not watched before, a horror movie that my wife would not want to watch in cinema, and a cartoon movie which we might watch on another occasion. So what was the premise of this movie? I would try my best to leave out important details of the movie to avoid spoiler. But as usual, if there is a worry of such thing, you can pass the brief story line below.
Brief Story Line
Movie started with a scene of documents signing in Moscow between the Russian mob leader called the "prince" and the mob member. We would later find out that the signing is related to an opening of a Bank in England which would be used for laundering Russian mob's dirty money. Subsequent to these events, scene moved to Morocco where Perry (Ewan McGregor - Star Wars episode 1-3, Mortdecai etc) was having dinner with his wife Gail (Naomie Harris - Pirates of the Carribean, Skyfall etc) in the hotel restaurant. Gail had to leave the dinner early as she was having work to handle but Perry seemed to had problem accepting it. In the same restaurant, there were some Russian guys having lots of fun and the "leader" named Dima (Stellan Skarsgård - The Girl with Dragon Tattoo, Thor etc) called Perry to join them which he accepted.
Dima and Perry seemed to hit it off and they went to a Russian party in another location. Dima asked Perry to play tennis on the following day and Gail was introduced after the tennis match to Dima and his large family with his wife, a daughter (Natasha) and 2 sons plus 2 twin girls. He requested Perry and Gail's presence to Natasha's birthday party later that night. Despite Gail's objection since it would be their last night in Morocco, Perry accepted the invitation. During this party, Perry was requested by Dima to pass a flash disc to MI6 when he returned to London. Perry somehow seemed unable to reject Dima's request.
When Perry and Gail reached London, Perry did pass the flash disc and was questioned by MI6 personnels consisted of Hector (Damian Lewis - Homeland TV series) and Luke (Khalid Abdalla). Gail was surprised about this and was very mad with Perry. It was found out later that the disc contain some Russian mob data about the possible bribes to certain British parliament members to approve the plan for opening of the new bank. Hector requested the operation to catch these people by agreeing to the terms demanded by Dima to his superior Billy Matlock (Mark Gatiss - Sherlock TV series). However, the request was denied since it involved Aubrey Longrigg (Jeremy Northam) who was a very senior politician. So Hector decided to go ahead with the operation by himself and aided by Luke and another operative.
Hector convinced Perry and Gail to meet up with Dima in France so as to acquire the complete information for him to build up the case. The meet up was becoming complicated since the "prince" assistant, Emilion was a little bit suspicious of such coincidence and assigned his thug Niki to try and investigate. In addition to the suspicion from the prince, Dima was not willing to give the complete information until all his family members could be brought to safety in England.
So can Perry and Gail complete their "assignments" being accidental spies? Can Hector convince his superiors and the British governments to approve the asylum request from Dima? What would happen to the prince and the bank he intended to open with the help from British corrupt officials? Find them all in this different kind of spy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I have to admit that I was having a little bit doubt watching this movie as I never saw the trailer before and I was not sure if this would be a good one or not. My wife and I saw this one on the basis that the rating was high in 1 of the famous movie critics website plus Ewan McGregor's movies are usually quite interesting.
The movie was moving at a very slow pace but the story and the curiosity of what would happen next was the one making it intriguing. Please do not expect the cool gadgets, lots of fighting and car chases cause this is not that kind of movie. As I said above, this is a spy thriller so not your average spy action movie. It involved lots of dramatic moments and great characterization.
By the way, the movie was having some scenes that were censored by Indonesian censorship board. Though they were most likely scenes that would not have major impact on the story line, they do tend be a little bit disturbing. Therefore it would not be a good idea to bring children to watch this movie.
My most memorable moment would be the surprise ending which provided some good closure for us audience. Even though the movie was considered a good one, but for me the pace could do a little bit faster. But overall the story was indeed good and it was adapted from a novel by the same name written by John le Carré.
For those of you expecting to see those full action movies, you would not be satisfied with this one. But those that are looking for a thriller drama movie, then this one would likely be a good entertainment.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
