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"Most Wanted," a thriller set at the intersection of journalism, police work and drug dealing, isn't as generic as its title. But its characters and story have just as much trouble making a strong impression. This would be frustrating under any circumstance, but it's particularly vexing here, because you can tell that everyone involved gave their all on behalf of what seemed like important work, made in a format that rarely gets financed anymore, let alone released to theaters. (Too bad most theaters were closed due to pandemic when the movie was initially released; its thoughtful sound design and handheld widescreen cinematography deserve an optimum viewing experience.)

Written and directed by Daniel Roby ("White Skin," TV's "Versailles"), set in 1989, and shot in Canada and Thailand, "Most Wanted" is a socially conscious suspense picture with a big feel that belies its low budget. The movie's look, sound, and rhythm as well as the "two strong characters, two separate but intersecting stories" format, are so clearly informed by the career of Michael Mann that when Roby drops one of that filmmaker's most distinctive music cues ("In the Air Tonight") into a scene with the same situation (drug dealing on a boat), it's as embarrassing as catching someone trying on another person's too-large clothes. 

Hartnett plays Victor Malerek, a handsome, long-haired, thick-mustached investigative reporter for newspapers and TV. His reputation for righteous, confrontational journalism is matched by his infamy as a conceited agent of chaos—a human bulldozer who neglects family and coworkers unless he needs to ask favors or beg forgiveness. Our introduction to Victor finds him in a TV studio, grilling an evasive subject. Then his beeper goes off, interrupting the interview, giving the subject a pretext to storm out, and setting Victor on a high speed drive to meet the person who beeped him: his wife Anna ( Amanda Crew ), who gave birth without him. Between failing to turn off his beeper and deciding to do a marquee interview while his wife was in labor, we immediately get that Victor is a standard-issue antiheroic crusader who hopes breaking a great story will prove that he's worth the trouble that follows him everywhere.

Unfortunately for the movie, we've seen this sort of man many, many times. And despite having established Victor's personality in the second scene and letting it stand as shorthand for the kind of guy he is, "Most Wanted" keeps returning to Victor's marital and professional problems even though there's a vastly more compelling story happening in the same timeline:  Antoine-Olivier Pilon (Léger), a low-level criminal and addict, becomes ensnared in an ethically bankrupt and illegal government scheme. The details are easy to find if you Google production stories about "Most Wanted," and they're intriguing enough that I wouldn't want to spoil them here. Let's just say that it all amounts to cops of various sorts trying to entrap people whose guilt is known but hard to prove, then letting the human instrument of their schemes (Antoine) take the fall when the plan fails.

Léger is so strong in the film's secondary lead role that he nearly rescues parts of "Most Wanted." He's an up-and-coming international star whose work in such films as " Mommy " and "1:54" marks him an exciting, soulful character actor in a leading man's body. Like young  Robert De Niro , Denzel Washington ,  Edward Norton , or Tom Hardy , he radiates such intense energy and makes such surprising choices in the moment that I could see him inspiring a fan club, if he doesn't already have one. There's so much happening in his face and body language, even when the character is hiding important information from others, that it partly compensates for the tediousness of the script, which seems comprised mainly of exposition disguised as banter, deployed to fill in the knowledge gaps of people who missed a couple of scenes because they were scrolling their phones. 

Jim Gaffigan is almost as effective as a sleazy, slobbish, violent drug dealer/addict who hastens Antoine’s downfall. Though previously known as a sitcom actor and standup comic, Gaffigan has increasingly distinguished himself as a character actor whose roles seem chosen to neutralize typecasting. He doesn't pull off the explosive rage required to put the fear of God in viewers—something about his performance makes the character's threat level come across as a 4 when it needed to be a 10—but in every other way, this is a striking performance, particularly when he shifts into a smarter-than-thou, psychologically invasive mode that the late Philip Seymour Hoffman used to specialize in.

Hartnett, though, is a disaster. His unconvincing performance amplifies many of the movie's worst tendencies. Exuding "maverick hero on the edge,” it's a bundle of predictable and shallow choices, from the insinuating smirk whenever Victor grills people to the way he stalks from point A to point B, indicating  unstoppability for viewers who might've missed it. 

Focusing on the young criminal and treating Victor as a supporting character and exposition provider might have lessened at least some of the movie's problems. But Hartnett, who could be a soulful, naturalistic blank slate in early roles, makes things worse by consistently failing to dominate scenes where you're supposed to believe Victor is getting what he wants by being louder, more charismatic, and nobler than anyone standing in his way.

A mediocre film that's unaware of the poor choices it's making is much harder to watch than a bad film that relishes its stupidity and poor taste. At least the second kind of film can be fun.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Most Wanted (2020)

Rated R for drug content, language throughout and some violence.

135 minutes

Josh Hartnett as Victor Malarek

Stephen McHattie as Frank Cooper

Jim Gaffigan as Picker

J. C. MacKenzie as Arthur

Antoine-Olivier Pilon as Daniel Léger

Don McKellar as Norm

• Daniel Roby

Cinematographer

• Ronald Plante
• Yvann Thibaudeau

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‘Most Wanted’: Despite chaotic editing, a great thriller comes through

The powerful and well-acted true-crime story of a small-time drug dealer in deep trouble is told with multiple timelines that overcomplicate the narrative..

Police are led to believe a small-time drug addict (Antoine Olivier Pilon) is a major dealer in “Most Wanted.”

Saban Films

What a mess.

That applies to the editing techniques employed in writer-director Daniel Roby’s enthralling but needlessly overcomplicated true-crime thriller “Most Wanted” — and it applies even more so to the gigantic mess made by Canadian law enforcement officials who were so desperate for a splashy bust they devoted an insane amount of time and resources to busting a small-time addict and drug dealer who wound up facing a life sentence in a Thai prison.

Inspired by true events but filled with fictional and quite theatrical touches, the generically titled “Most Wanted” is set in the late 1980s and travels in two timelines, one involving Josh Hartnett’s star investigative journalist Victor Malarek (an accomplished real-life reporter), and flashback sequences centering on Daniel Leger (Antoine Olivier Pilon), a 25-year-old addict living on the fringes of society and supporting his habit with minor crimes and drug deals. Malerek risks his career and even sees his family threatened over his dogged efforts to help Leger avoid spending the rest of his life in prison in Thailand on a conviction that is problematic to say the least.

As we bounce back between the two stories, the timeline gets lost in the weeds — especially when Victor starts appearing in the flashback sequences and meeting with Daniel in prison in an effort to expose the injustices inflicted upon Daniel. This powerful and well-acted story might have been much more effective if told in strictly linear fashion.

But the editing room is closed, so here we go. Hartnett has the long-haired, swashbuckling, talented but temperamental journalist thing down pat, as Victor tirelessly works his sources, moonlights on a TV magazine show, puts in 12-hour days and gets into spats with his editor, who is growing tired of Victor’s antics but nonetheless agrees to bankroll a trip to Thailand, where Victor wants to get to the bottom of the case that landed the small-timer Daniel Leger in prison and painted as a major drug dealer.

Meanwhile, in the flashback sequences, Antoine Olivier Pilon turns in a brilliant performance as the troubled Daniel, who drifts around the Vancouver area in search of his next score. Daniel’s wandering leads him to a fishing boat manned by a guy named Glen (Jim Gaffigan), who’s a real piece of work — charming and funny one moment, waving a gun around and threatening lives the next. Glen is a drug dealer and a police informant, and he works both sides with equal deceit and manipulation. When veteran task force officer Frank Cooper (Stephen McHattie) is passed over for a major promotion, he’s champing at the bit for a major bust, and he’s all too willing to believe Glen’s B.S. story about Daniel being a major cartel player who is about to make a huge heroin buy in Thailand. Glen manipulates the hapless Daniel into taking that trip, and before you can say “disaster in the making,” Cooper and his team are posing as drug buyers, Daniel is making promises he can’t keep, and everyone ends up in an alley in Thailand, and that’s when things REALLY go off the rails.

The character actor Stephen McHattie owns every scene he’s in as the world-weary Cooper, who is so blinded by ambition he can’t see that Daniel is clearly not a big-time player. Jim Gaffigan once again reminds us of his dramatic chops; his character of Glen would be worthy of a whole movie himself. “Most Wanted” runs a little long and a little ragged, but it’s still a solid adaptation of a mind-boggling, true-life story.

‘Most Wanted’: Film Review

Antoine-Olivier Pilon and Josh Hartnett headline a watchable but standard-issue thriller, based on a real-life case of Canadian police entrapment.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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The hard-headed reporter who doesn’t play by the rules is a stock character of films that invariably do. So it proves, again, in “Most Wanted,” a fact-based Canadian procedural of police skulduggery and journalistic derring-do that does its own job with proficient integrity, but as much inventiveness as you’d guess from that all-purpose placeholder of a title. Writer-director Daniel Roby has fictionalized the grim story of Alain Olivier, a small-time drug dealer tricked in 1989 by Canuck police into traveling to Thailand to orchestrate a major heroin score, landing him several years in a local prison. Victor Malarek, the real-life journo who uncovered the agents’ corruption, retains his identity in Roby’s telling, though as played with furrowed brow and gruff virtue by Josh Hartnett , he’s a movie hero through and through.

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What sparks of strangeness and intrigue “Most Wanted” has emerge principally from the presence of Antoine-Olivier Pilon — the electric star of Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” in 2014 — as Olivier, here renamed Daniel Léger for purposes of creative leeway. His gangly body language and penetrating, off-kilter stare suggest a real, bewildered inner rage, not defined simply by the tabloid-ready circumstances of his victimhood. You needn’t be familiar with the true story to anticipate his arc here, but Pilon makes for volatile watching all the same. When the script shifts to matters of newsroom infighting and shoe-leather reporting, Hartnett takes the lead with his usual likeable diligence, but it’s hard not to feel we’ve drifted from the film’s live wire.

Popular on Variety

It’s a good 45 minutes before Pilon’s and Hartnett’s halves of the film intersect, exposing a staggered non-linear timeline that, while deftly engineered, doesn’t yield quite the dramatic payoff you might expect. Before then, “Most Wanted” introduces its leads in leisurely fashion. Malarek is established as a star print and TV newsman whose earnest commitment to truth-seeking hasn’t made him many friends in high places, and a loving but inattentive husband to his wife Anna (Amanda Crew, thanklessly cast). He’s lightly admonished for missing the birth of their first child to chase a scoop; beyond that, Roby’s screenplay isn’t much concerned with Malarek’s home life either.

Léger is presented to us with more human creases and question marks. An itinerant manual laborer with a drug habit and very bad taste in companions, he has a chequered personal history that is revealed only in patches — the blank spaces turn out to be crucial, particularly when the police identify him as an ideal patsy for an entrapment operation. Falling in with brutish low-level criminal Picker (Jim Gaffigan, playing seamily and effectively against type) is a dead end that pretty much anybody but the dim, desperate Léger could see coming: Soon enough, he’s sent to Thailand to do a supposedly routine deal. Cue reversal, betrayal and a stint in the infamous Bang Kwang prison — portrayed here in suitably sobering fashion, though with slightly less baroque hellishness than in 2017’s “A Prayer Before Dawn,” another true-life tale of a hapless westerner drawn into its violent confines.

As Malarek pursues the truth of what exactly went down — to the grave consternation of his editor (J.C. Mackenzie), who’d rather he just left the whole thing alone — viewers might arrive at it slightly ahead of him. At over two hours, “Most Wanted” could stand to pick up the pace of its own investigation: Malarek’s office squabbles and marital strains, in particular, are diversions that consume considerable screen time without accumulating much emotional weight. Whenever it’s on Thai soil, the film moves with tightened urgency and vigor: Ronald Plante’s camerawork, crisp and handsome throughout, gains in humid restlessness as it travels from the serene, misted vistas of British Columbia.

Along with Pilon’s striking performance, the film’s sturdy, subdued craftsmanship keeps it from movie-of-the-week territory, even as Roby’s script ticks overly familiar boxes. Eloi Painchaud’s score contributes subtle menace, while Yvann Thibaudeau’s editing zips and darts and cross-cuts in ways that enliven passages of procedural cliché. Still, it’s hard not to feel that “Most Wanted” has hedged its bets between the perspectives of two characters, when we’d rather see Olivier/Léger’s story through his own naive eyes. What’s that they say about journalists becoming the story?

Reviewed online, London, July 22, 2020. Running time: 125 MIN.

• Production: (Canada) A Saban Films presentation in association with Highland Film Group, Goldrush Entertainment, Club Illico, TVA of a Caramel Films, Bataillon Films, Zone Film production. (International sales: Highland Film Group, Los Angeles.) Producers: André Rouleau, Valérie D'Auteuil. Executive producers: Daniel Roby, Yvann Thibeaudeau, Marc Côté, Patrick Roy, Anne-Claire Villeneuve, Eric Gozlan, Richard Iott, Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier, Henry Winterstern. Co-executive prodyucer: Ryan Winterstern.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Daniel Roby. Camera: Ronald Plante. Editor: Yvann Thibaudeau. Music: Eloi Painchaud.
• With: Antoine Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, Jim Gaffigan, J.C. Mackenzie, Amanda Crew.

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‘most wanted’: film review.

Josh Hartnett plays a Canadian journalist in 'Most Wanted,' Daniel Roby's true story of a scandalous drug sting.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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A grotesque case of cops being so eager to bust a drug dealer that they unwittingly create one, Daniel Roby’s Most Wanted adapts a true story in which a young Canadian (played by Antoine-Olivier Pilon) wound up spending years in a Thai prison for a crime he was practically forced to commit. Josh Hartnett plays the real Canuck investigative journalist Victor Malarek, whose life has already inspired a couple of biopic-like productions, and who doggedly pursued the truth here; but the pic may draw more attention stateside as a very against-type outing for wholesome comic Jim Gaffigan , who plays the scuzzy informant who sets this upsetting story in motion.

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Pilon’s Daniel Léger (not the real man’s name) is an addict who has been clean for six months, working in a forest far from those who might tempt him back to his old life. But his plans to start over in Vancouver go south mere hours after his return: The friend who’d promised to rent him a room instead strands him on a boat with Gaffigan’s Picker, a volatile party guy who shoves dope and prostitutes in Danny’s face, aiming to make the kid dependent on him.

Release date: Jul 24, 2020

Picker hires Danny to help on charter-fishing trips, feeding him tiny bags of heroin and tall tales about his exploits as a smuggler. In truth, Picker is a low-level informant for Sgt. Cooper (Stephen McHattie), a going-nowhere narcotics cop in desperate need of a newsworthy bust. When Picker tells Cooper he knows someone involved in major drug smuggling from Thailand, the cop agrees to pay him 80 grand if they can execute a successful sting.

Which is harder than it sounds, because the only thing Daniel ever did on his previous trips to Southeast Asia was buy drugs for his own consumption. He knows nothing about wholesaling. But with a few deft con-man moves, nicely played by Gaffigan, Picker manipulates him into amassing a debt, then points to a way out of it. Soon the reluctant, worried young man is being coerced into meetings with Sgt. Cooper, who pretends he’s a dealer in search of a new supplier.

Meanwhile, the film is flash-forwarding to Toronto scenes in which up-and-coming reporter Malarek is hitting speed bumps in his career. Roby’s script relies on some stale heroic-reporter tropes and stakes-raising devices (like the editor who tells him if his next story isn’t front-page-worthy, he’s fired); if these aren’t enough, Malarek’s wife ( Silicon Valley ‘s Amanda Crew ) has just had a baby, making him extra-vulnerable to any enemies he might make.

Nevertheless, Malarek smells something fishy in government press releases about a Canadian who got busted with dope in Thailand, and, despite strong discouragement from officials, he hops a plane to dig up the truth.

Quick and pretty constant cutting between different threads of this story keep Most Wanted from feeling as long as it actually is, but it also keeps us from committing fully to any one story, all of which feel slightly underwritten. Pilon and Hartnett ostensibly have the central roles, and each gets his share of melodramatic twists to react to. But the film’s unacknowledged dramatic center sits with Cooper. Roby would’ve been smart to invest more in McHattie’s performance, as the presumably ordinary cop gets caught up in the momentum of an expensive sting he launched in good faith, albeit with insufficient research. By the time he understands he’s working on busting a nobody who’s basically innocent, it would be career suicide to call things off. That’s a dilemma worth our attention, even if we all know how we’re going to judge Cooper in the end.

Production companies: Caramel Films, Bataillon Films, Zone Film Distributor: Saban Films (Available on demand) Cast: Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Amanda Crew Director-Screenwriter: Daniel Roby Producers: Valérie d’Auteuil, Daniel Roby, André Rouleau Director of photography: Ronald Plante Production designer: David Pelletier Costume designer: Veronique Marchessault Editor: Yvann Thibaudeau Composer: Jorane Casting director: Francis Cantin

Rated R, 125 minutes

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• Saban Films

Summary Inspired by the gripping true story, an investigative journalist (Josh Hartnett) unravels a twisted case of entrapment wherein a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, Daniel (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), is forced into a dangerous drug deal against his will and is sentenced to 100 years in a Thai prison. As Daniel endures torture and abuse, ... Read More

Directed By : Daniel Roby

Written By : Daniel Roby

Most Wanted

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Antoine Olivier Pilon

Daniel léger, josh hartnett, victor malarek, stephen mchattie, sergeant frank cooper, jim gaffigan, glen picker, cory lipman, don mckellar, rose-marie perreault, amanda crew, anna malarek, nadia verrucci, mark camacho, raphael grosz-harvey, james boulder, robert crooks, denis fountain, frank schorpion, j.c. mackenzie, harry standjofski, robert mcdonald, dawn lambing, pierre leblanc, randy brown, alan fawcett, john woodbridge, max laferriere, linda sorgini, daniel's mother, critic reviews.

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Movie Review – Most Wanted (2020)

July 21, 2020 by Robert Kojder

Most Wanted , 2020.

Directed by Daniel Roby. Starring Josh Hartnett, Stephen McHattie, Jim Gaffigan, J. C. MacKenzie, Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Don McKellar, Rose-Marie Perreault, Frank Schorpion, and Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi.

In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of a heroin addict imprisoned in a Thai jail.

Originally and more tantalizingly titled Target Number One , Most Wanted splits itself into two different timelines (past and present) cutting back and forth between one another to logically building to a collision. Inspired by true events, Daniel Léger (Antoine Olivier Pilon) found himself at the center of a drug bust set up at the hands of crooked members of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, despite in reality being nothing more than a troubled junkie trying but failing to overcome his vice. A criminal mastermind he was not, led along by a host of shady characters both of the law and not. Meanwhile, Josh Hartnett’s Canadian journalist Victor Malarek starts to dig deeper into why such a nobody is being held in a Thai prison, not being tried in his homeland, and why everyone else seems to be reacting as if he is an untouchable drug lord that was brought to justice.

The decision by writer and director Daniel Roby to shift back and forth between past and present is a sound one that works, but as one timeline catches up to the other, they begin to cycle quicker and more often to the point of mild confusion. Worse, Most Wanted reaches its conclusion without diving into a compelling third act, relegating that information to notes before the ending credits. To be fair, the set up is not necessarily believable either; there’s a phone call where Daniel’s parents are skeptical of giving him money under the impression that he’s going to use it for drugs. It’s made clear that he wants to turn a corner and stay away from drugs but is far too easily tempted by a past friend who invites him over on a boat to party with an unhinged and deceptive psychopath drug dealer Picker (Jim Gaffigan continuing to play against type and doing it convincingly.)

The point is the early goings of Most Wanted are hard to buy into (as is Daniel’s barely explored blossoming relationship with a pawnshop drug user) and the narrative itself ends too early, which might sound asking of too much considering the film is already 2+ hours long, but again, some of the most fascinating elements are skipped ahead for an epilogue. It’s all the odder when you factor in that the parallel timelines catching up to one another doesn’t really throw in any surprises. Everything plays out as laid in front of the viewer.

There’s really only one explanation; Daniel Roby wanted to craft a journalistic investigation piece based around the rowdy, confrontational, and above all else, a fighter for the truth reporter, Victor Malarek. The filmmaker just forgot to add some kind of mystery, anything for the viewers to try and uncover along with Victor. We know the police are crooked, we know everyone is setting up Daniel as a criminal mastermind to take the fall, and we know Victor will eventually put the pieces together. That’s not to say a film can’t be compelling without holding some cards back, but Most Wanted lacks suspense and strong characters to pull that off. The only real intriguing character dynamics comes from Picker and Daniel early on, who are essentially lying and trying to trick one another for completely different reasons. Meanwhile, the weakest aspect is Victor’s family life which sees their safety threatened as he comes closer and closer to exposing, once again, what we watching already know.

Aside from maybe two scenes, there’s not a big deal made about the moral ethics of potentially endangering one’s family further versus shining a light on abuse of power. It begs the question of why Daniel Roby chose the journalistic route when the character of Daniel, doing everything from struggling to stay clean to getting in way over his head of a drug deal against his own will, has more enticing variables to it. His prison life is also somewhat glossed over, which is unbelievable given that the film talks up his incredible battle to clear his name from a Thai prison right before it cuts to black.

Still, for as harsh as I appear to be coming down on Most Wanted , it does have a number of enjoyable components ranging from the acting (if nothing else, Antoine Olivier Pilon certainly generates empathy, whereas Jim Gaffigan is just fun to behold playing a lunatic) to a few exciting action sequences. In particular, a lengthy prison fight done as a one-take sticks out. Most Wanted is a film of dual protagonists that doesn’t allow viewers to fully invest in either of them.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated  Patreon , or email me at [email protected]

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MOVIE REVIEW

“MOST WANTED”

Rated R. Streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Google Play.

A true crime saga of yesteryear that remains eternally relevant, “Most Wanted” recounts a complex caper that spans nations and involves law enforcement, grifters, crusading journalists and a sap, a Canadian drug addict railroaded into a Thai prison for 100 years.

With echoes of “Midnight Express,” the drug smuggling classic of the ’70s that put gullible Westerners in Third World nightmares, “Most Wanted” is far more sophisticated.

It doesn’t romanticize its sweet but dim (very dim) junkie Daniel (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) and sees him, rightfully, as a pawn of just about everyone he meets.

Out of prison and homeless, Daniel is happy to find work on a yacht. Picker (Jim Gaffigan, just terrifically sleazy) is also a druggie, inveterate liar and supreme hustler who cons Canadian undercover cops into believing he’s connected to Thailand’s international drug trade.

Sure, he’s transparently, comically devious but not to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s undercover cops, led by Stephen McHattie’s Frank Cooper, who have no qualms giving him thousands of dollars for “information” and, crucially, a “drug kingpin” whom they can nail for importing kilos of Thai heroin.

That’s where dim Daniel is so useful.

Writer-director Daniel Roby has such a terrific eye for faces and an incisive way of photographing his large cast, that the story with its many facets could unfold silently, for these pictures really do tell the story.

Roby uses Gaffigan’s hairy bulk like a bulldozer that seethes and steams over every obstacle, whether it’s Cooper the cop whose pinched features suggest his blood’s been sucked dry by Dracula or the very pale, frequently half-naked Daniel, who is continually seen as a figure ready to be lain on an altar and sacrificed.

This is a notorious — if terribly familiar — look at corrupt, lawless police, entrapment, intimidation. And a couple of good guys.

They are led by Toronto investigative journalist Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett), who really did pursue a story no one cared about, even though it was an innocent Canadian citizen jailed for life and a patsy for a coverup by law enforcement.

Hartnett, strikingly tall, lean and fearless as Malarek, conveys the bitter realities of a diminished press with diminished resources.

This being 1989, the “war on drugs” meant headlines and lots and lots of money for drug buys and information. And virtually no progress with the “war.”

Pilon, a ringer for Caleb Landry Jones of “The Outpost,” almost makes us forgive Daniel’s frequent and continued stupidity. In reality, “Daniel” was Alain Olivier. As the film’s postscript makes clear, for the crooks and slimebags involved, justice was hardly served, mostly evaded.

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Most Wanted (2020) Movie Review: A Middling Crime Drama with Identity Crisis

Written by Ram Venkat Srikar

Daniel Roby’s  Most Wanted  (also known as  Target Number One ) begins with Daniel Léger (Antoine Olivier Pilon) a troubled young man, receiving his first paycheque as a lumberjack. It’s a cheque, remember. Moments later, we see him talking over the phone with his mother, who is clearly suspicious of him when he asks her credit card number citing he doesn’t have money at the moment. Convinced that he’d use the credit card to buy drugs, his mother hangs upon him. With no money at his disposal, he takes off on his bike without paying i.e. robbing the store. These two scenes elucidate Léger’s only two character attributes – a troubled lonely man and a small-time crook – which persist through the film switching from one to the other. In the next scene, we meet Victor Malarek, a real-life journalist on whose investigation the screenplay is woven around, played by Josh Hartnett, spreading Brad Pitt vibes. In Malarek’s introduction too, we get to witness his earnestness towards journalism and how his job is taking a toll on his personal life, the two attributes that shape his character. You see that the film is playing by the rules.

When Léger runs into the shady Picker (Jim Gaffigan), who the former should have felt is too good to be true, months of soberness go down the drain and he is sucked back into the void of addiction. Parallelly, we are introduced to Narcotics Officer Frank Cooper (a terrific Stephen McHattie), who we know for sure is going to play a crucial role in the bigger scheme of things. Then we transpire along with Malarek that Canadian Narcotics’ operation in Thailand resulted in the arrest of a drug lord and death of a Canadian officer, not Cooper, don’t worry he is the primary adversary. It’s by no means of surprise that Léger ended up in a Thai prison, branded a druglord, considering what the film’s synopsis reads. The narrative asserts more on how he ended up there than how he fought his way out of the prison, among which I believe the latter would have made a far intriguing story.

Despite the prevailing monotony, it’s never tedious considering there is an underlying tension amid the bad choices Léger continues to make one after the other, proving that he is no saint, but not as a bad person who would receive 100 years of imprisonment in a Thai prison. Shot by Ronald Plante in a new reporting style, the cinematography aids the tension, always making us feel like the characters are being spied upon. Like Léger, the screenplay too finds it arduous to gain a foothold of what it wants to be. I don’t wrong the filmmaker’s decisions but the subject matter holds tremendous potential to be an investigative drama, a thriller, a legal drama, or a prison drama on the lines of  Midnight Express.  Unlike  Midnight Express,  the protagonist here is lured into the cage by Canadian Narcos, who stage the entire busting akin to a street performance, but the performers have the faintest of the idea that it’s a trap. However, it feels like the screenplay – that holds back pivotal busting till the last act – tries to tick off every existing documentary troupe. Ethical journalism, tick; journalist’s straining relationship with family, tick; a victim’s hardships in prison, tick; government coverup, tick; distress caused to the journalist for locking horns with the government, tick; tick, tick, and one more tick. As a conscious creative choice spread through the screenplay, it’s not primitive but certainly holds back the film from leveraging the full potential of the subject matter.

Facets that I expected to hit like a truck, Léger’s weary relationship with his parents, for instance, are diluted to dialogues, creating a wide cleft between us and the characters we are supposed to root for. I discern there are bigger things at play, but a drama like  Most Wanted  – cautiously devoid of car chases, gunfights, and violence, banking on its characters – needed strong emotional resonance to invigorate itself.

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Review: Based on a True Canadian Story, Most Wanted Feels Too Familiar to be Memorable

• July 24, 2020
• Film , Film & TV , Review

Based on a true Canadian story, Most Wanted is actually two stories, set in the late 1980s, that sporadically intersect. The more interesting one is about young junkie Daniel Leger (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), who is forced by his drug-dealing employer (a wild turn by Jim Gaffigan) to take part in an extremely dangerous deal that involves him going to Thailand, where of course, he’s caught. He's sentenced to 100 years in a Thai prison, where he is regularly beaten and otherwise tormented. The entire reason he’s in jail at all is because of a sting operation set up by Canadian authorities who effectively set him up after mistaking him for someone with a shady criminal record (Daniel actually has no record). The task force is led by crooked cop Frank Cooper (McHattie), who has a bug up his ass because he’s been once again been passed up for a promotion and is looking to make a significant bust to prove he’s worthy of one. It’s a perfect storm of bad circumstances and deception that gets Daniel jailed, with seemingly no one on his side to help free him.

The other story is actually about the one person looking to help Daniel, although with an ulterior motive. Josh Hartnett plays reporter Victor Malarek, who writes in-depth investigative pieces for his Canadian paper and hosts his own TV news show, both of which he’s in danger of being fired from. Daniel's story is essentially his last shot, but when the Canadian government gets wind of what he’s up to and that he’s attempting to discredit what they’re selling as the break-up of a major heroin ring, Victor’s outlets drop him. But he continues to investigate the story, while risking the safety of his wife Anna (a largely wasted Amanda Crew) and newborn child.

The view of life inside a Thai prison is far more eye-opening than a reporter going from source to source, and it helps that Pilon is such an engaging and sympathetic actor, using his wiry frame and thoughtful persona to make Daniel inherently interesting. Yes, he’s a victim of a conspiracy that he could never have seen coming, but he also is easily led when he thinks someone is lending a helping hand. His storyline takes some time to intersect with that of Victor’s, and their first sit-down interview at the prison is so riveting and loaded with unspoken tension that it’s easily the best scene in the movie, which jumps around in time a bit to reveal exactly how and why Daniel was set up.

But much of the stuff with the investigation and dirty police feels wildly familiar to the point where it never really takes hold as a solid piece of drama. Plus, since we know how nightmarish Daniel’s experiences in prison truly are, it’s hard to feel bad for a reporter hitting roadblock after roadblock and think he’s got it tough. There are some standout supporting performances from the likes of McKellar as one of Victor’s only friends who helps him out, and J.C. MacKenzie as his editor at the paper, who wants to support him but doesn’t have the funds or backbone to do so. I honestly feel like I haven’t seen Josh Hartnett in anything in so long that this role reminded me that while there’s usually nothing technically bad about his work in most films, he also never gives me the impression that another actor couldn’t have done a better job. He’s fine in Most Wanted , but like the film itself, there’s really nothing special about it outside of its unique Canadian flare.

The film is available in select theaters and On Demand.

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Steve Prokopy

Steve Prokopy is chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review. For nearly 20 years, he was the Chicago editor for Ain’t It Cool News, where he contributed film reviews and filmmaker/actor interviews under the name “Capone.” Currently, he’s a frequent contributor at /Film (SlashFilm.com) and Backstory Magazine. He is also the public relations director for Chicago's independently owned Music Box Theatre, and holds the position of Vice President for the Chicago Film Critics Association. In addition, he is a programmer for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, which has been one of the city's most anticipated festivals since 2013.

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Josh Hartnett stars in new movie 'Most Wanted', based on true story about police conspiracy and corruption

Josh Hartnett stars in the new movie 'Most Wanted', based on true story about police conspiracy and corruption.

HOLLYWOOD -- The new movie, "Most Wanted," is inspired by a true story. Josh Hartnett plays an investigative reporter trying to uncover the truth to save a young man's life; putting the pieces together of a drug bust that sends a wrongly accused young man to prison in Thailand.

The film is inspired by a real bust in the late 1980s involving a conspiracy, a troubled kid from the wrong side of the tracks and some dirty undercover cops.

"This story is of such vast corruption in the Canadian policing system that it was amazing to me that I never heard anything about this," said Hartnett. "And so this kind of enormous conspiracy took down this young kid, this young guy who really had nothing to do with any of this and ended up landing him in a Thai prison serving life at, you know, a very, very young age. And, you know, he would have died in there if it had not been for the efforts of the character I play."

Canadian director and USC grad Daniel Roby says theatres where he is in Montreal are now open for moviegoers. Here in L.A., you'll have to watch from your home theatre. But wherever you are, Roby promises this: "I think you go through an intense, thrilling moment in the theatre and at the movies but you just walk away with something to reflect on, I hope."

"Most Wanted" is available now on demand.

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‘Most Wanted’: Film Review

Click here to read the full article.

The hard-headed reporter who doesn’t play by the rules is a stock character of films that invariably do. So it proves, again, in “ Most Wanted ,” a fact-based Canadian procedural of police skulduggery and journalistic derring-do that does its own job with proficient integrity, but as much inventiveness as you’d guess from that all-purpose placeholder of a title. Writer-director Daniel Roby has fictionalized the grim story of Alain Olivier, a small-time drug dealer tricked in 1989 by Canuck police into traveling to Thailand to orchestrate a major heroin score, landing him several years in a local prison. Victor Malarek, the real-life journo who uncovered the agents’ corruption, retains his identity in Roby’s telling, though as played with furrowed brow and gruff virtue by Josh Hartnett , he’s a movie hero through and through.

What sparks of strangeness and intrigue “Most Wanted” has emerge principally from the presence of Antoine-Olivier Pilon — the electric star of Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” in 2014 — as Olivier, here renamed Daniel Léger for purposes of creative leeway. His gangly body language and penetrating, off-kilter stare suggest a real, bewildered inner rage, not defined simply by the tabloid-ready circumstances of his victimhood. You needn’t be familiar with the true story to anticipate his arc here, but Pilon makes for volatile watching all the same. When the script shifts to matters of newsroom infighting and shoe-leather reporting, Hartnett takes the lead with his usual likeable diligence, but it’s hard not to feel we’ve drifted from the film’s live wire.

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It’s a good 45 minutes before Pilon’s and Hartnett’s halves of the film intersect, exposing a staggered non-linear timeline that, while deftly engineered, doesn’t yield quite the dramatic payoff you might expect. Before then, “Most Wanted” introduces its leads in leisurely fashion. Malarek is established as a star print and TV newsman whose earnest commitment to truth-seeking hasn’t made him many friends in high places, and a loving but inattentive husband to his wife Anna (Amanda Crew, thanklessly cast). He’s lightly admonished for missing the birth of their first child to chase a scoop; beyond that, Roby’s screenplay isn’t much concerned with Malarek’s home life either.

Léger is presented to us with more human creases and question marks. An itinerant manual laborer with a drug habit and very bad taste in companions, he has a chequered personal history that is revealed only in patches — the blank spaces turn out to be crucial, particularly when the police identify him as an ideal patsy for an entrapment operation. Falling in with brutish low-level criminal Picker (Jim Gaffigan, playing seamily and effectively against type) is a dead end that pretty much anybody but the dim, desperate Léger could see coming: Soon enough, he’s sent to Thailand to do a supposedly routine deal. Cue reversal, betrayal and a stint in the infamous Bang Kwang prison — portrayed here in suitably sobering fashion, though with slightly less baroque hellishness than in 2017’s “A Prayer Before Dawn,” another true-life tale of a hapless westerner drawn into its violent confines.

As Malarek pursues the truth of what exactly went down — to the grave consternation of his editor (J.C. Mackenzie), who’d rather he just left the whole thing alone — viewers might arrive at it slightly ahead of him. At over two hours, “Most Wanted” could stand to pick up the pace of its own investigation: Malarek’s office squabbles and marital strains, in particular, are diversions that consume considerable screen time without accumulating much emotional weight. Whenever it’s on Thai soil, the film moves with tightened urgency and vigor: Ronald Plante’s camerawork, crisp and handsome throughout, gains in humid restlessness as it travels from the serene, misted vistas of British Columbia.

Along with Pilon’s striking performance, the film’s sturdy, subdued craftsmanship keeps it from movie-of-the-week territory, even as Roby’s script ticks overly familiar boxes. Eloi Painchaud’s score contributes subtle menace, while Yvann Thibaudeau’s editing zips and darts and cross-cuts in ways that enliven passages of procedural cliché. Still, it’s hard not to feel that “Most Wanted” has hedged its bets between the perspectives of two characters, when we’d rather see Olivier/Léger’s story through his own naive eyes. What’s that they say about journalists becoming the story?

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Inside man: most wanted, common sense media reviewers.

Trite action sequel with gun violence and language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The importance of negotiation over the use of viol

Remy Darbonne and Brynn Stewart show integrity, co

Director M.J. Bassett is a woman. Lead Aml Ameen i

Heist scenes are filled with tense moments where h

One couple kisses.

"F--k," "s--t," "damn," "goddamn."

A scene is set in a bar where people are drinking.

Parents need to know that Inside Man: Most Wanted is a heist thriller and sequel to Inside Man . Violent moments include heist scenes filled with tense moments where hostages are taken. The bank robbers carry many weapons and point them at hostages. Constant shooting and taze guns, with one…

Positive Messages

The importance of negotiation over the use of violence. Not judging a book by its cover and learning all the facts before making up your mind. Protecting your family and loved ones.

Positive Role Models

Remy Darbonne and Brynn Stewart show integrity, compassion, and teamwork as they try to defuse the heist scene. Although at first she appears to be the villain, Ariella reveals great courage as we learn more about the reasons why she's committing a crime.

Diverse Representations

Director M.J. Bassett is a woman. Lead Aml Ameen is Black (from Jamaican and Vicentian descent), co-leads Roxanne McKee and Rhea Seehorn are White women given roles that are usually played by male actors. The ensemble features background characters, including Ansh (Akshay Kumar who is of Indian descent), who don't have much to do.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Heist scenes are filled with tense moments where hostages are taken. The bank robbers carry many weapons and point them at hostages. Constant shooting and use of taze guns aren't very graphic except for a stabbing scene, which is bloody. Body count remains unclear especially when a bomb goes off and we purposely aren't supposed to know if key characters were killed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Inside Man: Most Wanted is a heist thriller and sequel to Inside Man . Violent moments include heist scenes filled with tense moments where hostages are taken. The bank robbers carry many weapons and point them at hostages. Constant shooting and taze guns, with one graphic stabbing. Body count remains unclear, especially when a bomb goes off and we purposely aren't supposed to know if key characters were killed. A scene is set in a bar where people are drinking. Language has uses of "f--k," "s--t," and "damn." Positive messages include the importance of negotiation over the use of violence, not judging a book by its cover, and learning all the facts before making up your mind. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

INSIDE MAN: MOST WANTED takes place five years after Inside Man and follows Ariella Barash ( Roxanne McKee ) as she leads a band of robbers to take over the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to steal a stash of Nazi Gold. FBI negotiator Brynn Stewart (Rhea Sehorn) and NYPD negotiator Remy Darbonne ( Aml Ameen ) are sent to resolve the situation with as little violence as possible, and discover Ariella has more at stake in the heist than financial gain.

Is It Any Good?

They say it's not a good sign to see a sequel starring none of the original talent; there's always a reason no one wanted to return. INSIDE MAN: MOST WANTED proves there's truth in that saying. The sequel, set five years after Spike Lee's thrilling Inside Man but filmed more than a decade after the original and with no one from the creative team or cast returning, is a by-the-numbers heist film that creates a facile link to the original, as if to reassure itself it's in any way related to it, but fails to elicit real thrills of any kind.

The cast is talented and efficient, but they're all at the service of a screenplay built on clichés and stereotypes. It should have borrowed, or stolen, more from Inside Man, and less from generic TV dramas, which is what this feels like. Aml Amleen certainly commands the screen as lead negotiator Remy Darbonne, but he and everyone else in the cast deserved something richer to sink their teeth into. Perhaps discovering this film will lead more people to Lee's 2006 masterpiece, which despite being his biggest commercial hit, failed to get him financing to do the sequel of his dreams.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the essential job of negotiators as seen in Inside Man: Most Wanted. Why do you think their work is so essential? What can you learn about negotiators?

How does Remy show integrity and compassion in his work?

How does Ariella show courage despite being the villain? Why is it important to see nuanced villains?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 24, 2019
• Cast : Aml Ameen , Rhea Seehorn , Roxanne McKee
• Director : M. J. Bassett
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 105 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence and language throughout
• Last updated : April 26, 2024

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Most Wanted | 2020 | R | – 4.5.10

Most Wanted SEX/NUDITY 4

Most wanted violence/gore 5, most wanted language 10, most wanted substance use, most wanted discussion topics, most wanted message.

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“Most Wanted” Blu-ray Review: Based On A True Scandal, This Investigative Thriller Could Have Benefited From A Tighter Approach

In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of a heroin addict imprisoned in a Thai jail.

I love a great story involving investigative journalism, drugs, and government officials caught with their pants down. I was surprised I’ve never heard of this Canadian scandal that was an international incident in the late 1980s. Featuring a scrappy cast of actors and some gorgeous locations, I was definitely excited to watch this film.

“Most Wanted” begins in the thick woods of British Columbia, Daniel Leger (Antoine Olivier Pilón) is finishing his shift as a logger and rides his motorcycle to a local gas station. Inside the station, he phones his mother and the two have an argument causing Daniel to ride off without paying for his petrol and cigarettes. Cut to Toronto, 1989, Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett) is an investigative journalist conducting a salacious interview with a corrupt politician. Before he can finish grilling his perplexed subject, his beeper goes off and Victor races to the hospital to witness the birth of his child. The race becomes a car chase since the local mob is tailing him in an attempt to silence his reporting. He makes it in time and learns soon after that he’ll be a freelancer or “stringer” for his newspaper, which is a step down from a salaried reporter. Victor knows he’ll have to find a big story to regain his tenure. He comes across a report on the heroin pipeline hailing from Thailand to Canada. After some hilarious banter with his editor Arthur, he’s told “if your story doesn’t make the front page, you’re out of here.”

Daniel arrives in Vancouver and meets his old friend partying on a little but luxurious yacht with a few sex workers and a heavily intoxicated big man Glen (Jim Gaffigan). While Phil Collins’ timeless “In the Air Tonight” blasts in the background, Glen displays some bi-polar behavior questioning Daniel and is way too comfortable wielding his handgun. I was impressed with Gaffigan’s performance, I definitely expected an underwhelming experience but he really does a fantastic job of being sinisterly subdued and switching into a maniac. Glen and Daniel become partners, running boat tours for tourists, and dealing heroin. Unbeknownst to Daniel, Glen is making some shady deals with government officials. The lead official is played by the exceptional character actor Stephen McHattie who always reminds me of a Canadian Lance Henriksen. They concoct a plan to get Daniel caught with ten kilos of heroin and blame him as the sole trafficker of international narcotics.

The screenplay jumps back and forth between Daniel getting involved in the conspiracy and Victor’s investigation in Thailand. The cinematography is stylish but not too artificial or distracting. The score is synth-driven with flourishing piano keys interspersed along with some period-appropriate musical tracks by New Order and others. The subject matter of international drug trade overseen by government agents and journalistic integrity is pure gold. As successful as these elements are on their own, the film doesn’t let these themes fully coagulate into a splendid film. I felt there was way too much time spent on Daniel’s period in Thailand. Since it’s clear he’s arrested, the lead up to his imprisonment is a bit sluggish. I think the pacing would’ve benefited from twenty minutes cut from the screenplay. I’ve never seen the lead Pilón before but he did a solid job for carrying a lot of scenes. I’ve noticed Josh Hartnett has been taking on a variety of projects and not settling for heartthrob romantic leads. I think he’s actually talented and luckily he’s been shedding more of that boyish look which will open more strong leading roles. That being said, I plan to read more about this scandal and the mysterious players that ended up getting away with it.

Available on Blu-ray™ and Digital September 22nd

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Eamon Tracy

Based in Philadelphia, Eamon lives and breathes movies and hopes there will be more original concepts and fewer remakes!

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A Most Wanted Man

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Smart, subtle, and steadily absorbing, A Most Wanted Man proves once again that John le Carre books make for sharp, thoughtful thrillers.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Anton Corbijn

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Gunter Bachmann

Rachel McAdams

Annabel Richter

Grigoriy Dobrygin

Issa Karpov

Willem Dafoe

Robin Wright

Martha Sullivan

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'a most wanted man': a parable grounded in the real world.

Mark Jenkins

Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in A Most Wanted Man , director Anton Corbijn's adaptation of John le Carré's 2008 novel, as German intelligence officer Günther Bachmann. Roadside Attractions hide caption

Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in A Most Wanted Man , director Anton Corbijn's adaptation of John le Carré's 2008 novel, as German intelligence officer Günther Bachmann.

Islamic immigrant Issa Karpov (played by Grigoriy Dobrygin) and American social worker Annabel Richter (played by Rachel McAdams) get caught up in Bachmann's plan to prevent a national security threat. Roadside Attractions hide caption

Islamic immigrant Issa Karpov (played by Grigoriy Dobrygin) and American social worker Annabel Richter (played by Rachel McAdams) get caught up in Bachmann's plan to prevent a national security threat.

Fittingly, one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's final performances is in a movie about role-playing. The masterly actor mutters and growls his way through A Most Wanted Man as a spy who's simultaneously fighting two losing wars: against the West's enemies as well as his own putative allies.

Further deepening the movie's ambiguity, the American actor plays a German in a story whose payoff is pungently anti-American.

Although set in Hamburg rather than London, this is familiar turf for John le Carre, whose 2008 novel is the movie's source. Dutch-British director Anton Corbijn's adaptation of A Most Wanted Man is thematically linked to, and almost as good as, Tomas Alfredson's film of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy . Both are painstaking, rueful accounts of men who try to outthink a poisonously irrational world.

Le Carre placed the story in Hamburg because that's where the 9/11 attacks were planned. The city has been on "high alert" ever since, an opening note explains. So the people who pay attention to mysterious newcomers are intrigued when a desperate-looking Chechen, Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), slinks out of the Elbe River.

Word of his arrival quickly reaches Gunther Bachmann (Hoffman), who runs a secret counterintelligence unit whose operations are ostensibly banned by German law. In the mode of Peter Falk's Columbo, Gunther is disheveled and seemingly impulsive, yet actually methodical.

Gunther begins by speaking German but quickly switches to accented English, an old Hollywood trick that works here because Hoffman and the movie's other native Anglophones — notably Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe — don't overplay the Teutonic inflections. Their tones never clash with those of Nina Hoss and Daniel Bruhl, actual German stars in supporting roles.

The assumption is that Issa wants to contact Islamic terror cells in Hamburg. Instead, he moves in with some new acquaintances, who refer him to a human-rights lawyer, Annabel Richter (a blonde McAdams). After seeing Issa's scars from Russian torture, Annabel begins an application for political asylum.

It turns out that Issa has the key to unlock a multimillion-euro inheritance from his hated father. The money is in a bank, run by Tommy Brue (Dafoe), whose operations are not strictly legal — just like Gunther's. Issa wants to give the tainted legacy to respected Muslim pundit and philanthropist Dr. Faisal Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi). But Faisal himself may not be entirely legit.

Gunther plans to, as they say in paranoid thrillers, follow the money. But Berlin-based Dieter Mohr (Rainer Bock), who runs the country's officially acknowledged counterterrorism group, would rather arrest Issa straightaway. Somewhere in between, it appears, is icy CIA agent Martha Sullivan (a brunette Robin Wright).

While Gunther would prefer not to deal with American spies, Martha's presence gives him more time to track Issa and Faisal. And Gunther and Martha develop a grudging rapport, illustrated by the way each offers the same half-ironic explanation for why they do the jobs they do.

Condensed by Australian scripter Andrew Bovell (who's probably best known for Lantana ), A Most Wanted Man retains a cogent narrative and le Carre's weary outlook. Rather than choke the narrative with details, the filmmakers keep the story lean while adding evocative visual and aural details.

Corbijn, a former Brit-rock video maker, has a little fun by dropping Gang of Four's "To Hell With Poverty" into a bar scene and giving a small role to soundtrack composer Herbert Gronemeyer. But the look of the movie, shot in Hamburg and Berlin locations by the great Benoit Delhomme, is serious and authentic. If A Most Wanted Man is a parable, it's one placed firmly in the real world.

A Most Wanted Man

2 HOURS 1 MINS

An escaped militant’s attempt to claim an inheritance gives a German spy the chance to lay a trap.

Movie Trailer

Cast & Crew

Philip Seymour Hoffman Gunter Bachmann

Rachel McAdams Annabel Richter

Grigoriy Dobrygin Issa Karpov

Willem Dafoe Tommy Brue

Robin Wright Martha Sullivan

Nina Hoss Erna Frey

Daniel Brühl Max

Vicky Krieps Niki

John le Carré Executive Producer

Where to Stream

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An escaped militant's attempt to claim an inheritance gives a German spy the chance to lay a trap.

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