Set in Cuba shortly before the revolution (and filmed there after), Our Man in Havana stars Alec Guinness as a man reluctantly persuaded to spy for Britain. He shows no talent for the job, but a considerable talent for making things up.
There's a point in the middle of the film, as his lies become amplified by competing factions, that I thought what had been a rather sedate but interesting start was going to move into hilarity. But instead the movie became less comedic after that point.
Unfortunate the dramatic elements aren't all that interesting. The movie seems to know that, as it keeps a lot of dramatic threads sketchy. But that just makes the drama weaker; Burl Ives character is never properly explored, and a romance late in the film flowers out of virtually nothing.
The movie is well-filmed (at times it's reminiscent in style to director Carol Reed's masterwork The Third Man) and has some good performances (Ernie Kovacs is quite good as a genial yet brutal police captain), but much of it feels like a lost opportunity to push it's brilliant satirical premise to the dark comedy it seems so capable of.
There's a point in the middle of the film, as his lies become amplified by competing factions, that I thought what had been a rather sedate but interesting start was going to move into hilarity. But instead the movie became less comedic after that point.
Unfortunate the dramatic elements aren't all that interesting. The movie seems to know that, as it keeps a lot of dramatic threads sketchy. But that just makes the drama weaker; Burl Ives character is never properly explored, and a romance late in the film flowers out of virtually nothing.
The movie is well-filmed (at times it's reminiscent in style to director Carol Reed's masterwork The Third Man) and has some good performances (Ernie Kovacs is quite good as a genial yet brutal police captain), but much of it feels like a lost opportunity to push it's brilliant satirical premise to the dark comedy it seems so capable of.