I love a good, gritty, low-key thriller. This movie is not that.
The John Le Carre characters are watered down and distilled to meaninglessness and boredom. None of their motivations are discernible, and the different figures are mostly just there to look sinister, smoke, drink and walk around in Hamburg. The complex Le Carre plot, shrunk to movie length, is completely incomprehensible. Pretty much nothing happens during the entire movie - and by nothing I don't just mean that there are no action scenes (that would be okay) but that there simply is no story. The much lauded "final scene" is just as incomprehensible, meaningless and ridiculous as the rest of the movie.
Nothing in this film interested me at all, except (a little bit) Hoffman's final performance (which, let's face it, is not that exceptional were it not for the fact that it was his final) and, mostly, the interesting Hamburg and German scenery.
Don't see it, it's not worth it.
The John Le Carre characters are watered down and distilled to meaninglessness and boredom. None of their motivations are discernible, and the different figures are mostly just there to look sinister, smoke, drink and walk around in Hamburg. The complex Le Carre plot, shrunk to movie length, is completely incomprehensible. Pretty much nothing happens during the entire movie - and by nothing I don't just mean that there are no action scenes (that would be okay) but that there simply is no story. The much lauded "final scene" is just as incomprehensible, meaningless and ridiculous as the rest of the movie.
Nothing in this film interested me at all, except (a little bit) Hoffman's final performance (which, let's face it, is not that exceptional were it not for the fact that it was his final) and, mostly, the interesting Hamburg and German scenery.
Don't see it, it's not worth it.