ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE
Copyright © 2001 by Michael Segers, All rights reserved
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The Tailor of Panama
Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush,
Jamie Lee Curtis, Leonor Varela,
Brendan Gleeson, Harold Pinter,
Catherine McCormack, Daniel Radcliffe,
Lola Boorman, David Hayman,
Mark Margolis, Martin Ferrero,
John Fortune, Martin Savage,
Edgardo Molino
Directed by John Boorman
Written by John Le Carré and Andrew Davies
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexuality, language and some violence.
Runtime:109 minutes
Information from Internet Movie Database
Rejoice, brethren and sister-n, we’ve got ourselves a thriller with nary a hint of MTV flash or trash, not much violence, and just a dollop of sex that doesn’t turn into an anatomy lesson. This is really thrilling (although I may be scaring away audiences with every word): The Tailor of Panama appeals to the most thrilling organ of our bodies, our brains.
Tailor is about a down and out British spy, Andy Osnard, sent to Panama to think about his sins—rather vaguely alluded to, but it seems he has helped some wives--not his own--go astray. That this spy is played by Pierce Brosnan, the current avatar of James Bond, adds a pinch of irony to the sauce, whipped up from a recipe by that grand old gourmet of such casseroles, John Le Carré.
Instead of stewing in Panama, however, Andy connects with a local and titular tailor (Rush) who tells him what he wants to hear. Neither of them seem to care whether the tailor considers a little old thing called truth—a commodity which seems to be in short supply or demand in Panama, or at least, this film’s version of Panama. It was, by the way, shot on location, with a real feel for the ambiance of a third world capital city, with everyone, including the folks from the “developed” nations, out for anything they can get.
Against that background the story unfolds. This is a delicious yarn that I really can’t summarize, because there are so many plot twists and turns. The film comes to life, however, in its rich range of characters and performances. Pendel, the tailor, carries a heavy load of emotional baggage and secrets, given weird life by quick glimpses of playwright Harold Pinter as—gee, if I even tell you whom he is playing, I would be giving away something you need to find out for yourself. Brosnan shows more depth than I’ve ever seen in his work, but Curtis seems wasted as the tailor’s American wife.
The whole thing is as British as last week’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, but with a more old-fashioned British-ness. Stiff upper lip, and all that, more in Graham Greene fields than in Ian Fleming Bond-age. The puzzles don’t deal with who-done-it or is doing it: we know that from the start. The real problem is to whom is it being done, and who knows. Who is smart enough to appear stupid enough to…?
Not stupid, in fact, Intellectual, the film certainly is, but in a witty way. A film doesn't have to be dumb and dumber to be funny. In fact, this is as entertaining as any film I’ve seen in a long time, offering so many pleasures on so many levels, packing more depth of character and breadth of plot into not much over a hundred minutes than I expected. This is a film that shows us just how a literate, downright literary script can be brought to life, in the hands of a skilled director (Boorman, perhaps best known for Deliverance).
Surfing around for something to enhance your experience of this film, I came across the Political Film Society review written by Michael Haas. This is a site and society that I am not at all familiar with, but it is one that I hope to come back to, offering as it does political background and interpretation of films.
Yet, for all its political content, this film dares go where perhaps only the thriller can still tread, to the eschatological realm of true evil, banal as Hannah Arendt said it is, sold to the highest bidder. But, in the end, as the two principles go on their their destinies, there is a gentle affirmation of something deeper, something more meaningful, that gives the film a bit of affirmation at the end, which I hope is not as ironic as the rest of it.
Keep your feet dry, your heart full of noble thoughts, and your rear comfortably ensconced in front of whichever screen at the megaplex on which The Tailor of Panama is showing. It may not set you off on a frenzy or spying or sewing either, but it may make you check your change after you buy your popcorn.