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The Tailor of Panama (2001)
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
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 taste for gambling and other men's wives has put him on the wrong side of his bosses at MI6,... 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 The mundane tragedy of espionage familiar to le Carre's Cold Warriors has been replaced by farce with the collapse of the Soviet Union.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]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson, David Hayman
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 2, 2007
DVD Features:
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dubbed - French - Optional
- Subtitles - Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
Reviews
The film, for all its earnestness, snaky comedy, and would-be intelligence, never manages any real fizz.
A never-thrilling, occasionally amusing picture which wheezes badly, like a pig which has been shot but refuses to die.
Funny, frisky and always on the right side of plausible. Mission accomplished.
I had forgotten that thrillers could possibly be this much fun and rippingly intelligent at the same time.
If you think the spy-thriller genre has been streamlined and spoofed and subverted until nothing new can be done to it, think again.
It doesn't feel like a normal espionage thriller; it feels much, much better.
A broad, ribald circus flagrantly in love with the English language, The Tailor bustles with swaggering, jubilant showmanship.
Like "Three Kings," "The Tailor of Panama" is a political satire that emerged from the studio system with its fangs intact.
No es una película fácil ni para aquellos con estómago débil, debido a su explícito contenido sexual, su fuerte carga inmoral, su lenguaje y algunas escenas de violencia.
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by: Mary Beth 9/15/01
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The Tailor of Panama at IGN
The Tailor of Panama at AskMen


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