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The Tailor of Panama (2001)
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Reviews Counted:111
Fresh:86
Rotten:25
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: A smart and satrical thriller with an engaging cast.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexuality, language and some violence
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Mar 30, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $13,123,070
Synopsis: Pierce Brosnan stars as the anti-Bond in maverick director John Boorman's adaptation of legendary spy novelist John le Carre's seamy tour of post-Noriega Panama. A British intelligence agent whose... Pierce Brosnan stars as the anti-Bond in maverick director John Boorman's adaptation of legendary spy novelist John le Carre's seamy tour of post-Noriega Panama. A British intelligence agent whose taste for gambling and other men's wives has put him on the wrong side of his bosses at MI6, Andy Osnard (Brosnan) is posted to the backwater of Panama to atone for his sins. To that end, he recruits upscale tailor Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), leveraging the man's financial problems and questionable past to gain access to information about the activities of his elite clientele. Meanwhile, Osnard remains true to form, recruiting the personal services of lovely embassy official Francesca (Catherine McCormack), and attempting the same with Harry's wife, Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis). When Harry's best friend Micki (Brendan Gleeson), a former member of the anti-Noriega underground, now a broken man, begins blustering about politics in front of Osnard, both of these con men begin to see him as the solution to their problems. The mundane tragedy of espionage familiar to le Carre's Cold Warriors has been replaced by farce with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boorman creates an atmosphere redolent with U.S.-abetted corruption in this well written and acted film, which also features playwright Harold Pinter in a cameo role. [More]
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson, David Hayman, Catherine McCormack, Harold Pinter, Leonor Valera, Dylan Baker, Daniel Radcliffe
Director: John Boorman
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Andrew Davies, John Boorman
Studio: Columbia Pictures
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Reviews for The Tailor of Panama
The decision to let Brosnan play Osnard probably kept the Bond producers up a few nights, but letting him do it was the right call.
One big double entendre that's too jokey for its own good yet nevertheless is at times very amusing.
This plot-centered motion picture demands that its audience thinks rather than sits passively and watches.
To enjoy this movie fully, it's best not to read le Carré's masterful novel.
While the picture contains no specific structural flaw or bad performance, it simply never manages to be engaging or compelling enough to overcome its overall bland and lackluster feel.
Very talky -- fortunately, with actors like these and a script by Andrew Davies, Boorman and Le Carre himself, the talk is frequently good.
I might have enjoyed The Tailor of Panama a bit more if it did not echo a much sharper and more amusing romp in the cane field of Latin American intrigue, Our Man in Havana.
Another middling film that will leave audiences neither shaken nor stirred.
Forget the end and there is much to enjoy here, especially in the playing of Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush.
A hand-tailored job in a marketplace filled with off-the-rack movies.
Strong as Brosnan is, Rush is more impressive for the ways he can make us sympathize with someone who is doing dreadful things.
If it works -- and this viewer thinks it works quite well -- most of the credit goes to Rush's performance.
Brosnan makes Osnard into one of the spy genre's great cynical manipulators, Bond on a bender. It's too bad the rest of the film can't quite live down to his character.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
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