Intelligent BBC thriller with an amazing cast and a complex political plot that stalls and creaks a little from time to time. Playwright David Hare could've pitched this one as "Tinker Tailor" meets "Zero Dark Thirty," since the main storyline concerns two old-school British spooks (Bill Nighy and Michael Gambon) pushing back against a hawkish PM (Ralph Fiennes) who seems to have drunk quite a bit of the old Dick Cheney Kool-Aid. If you've seen "The Constant Gardener," you'll note that there's been some role reversal here. Now Bill Nighy's the quixotic truth seeker, Ralph Fiennes the ruthless pol. Rachel Weisz plays pretty much the same character in both—the activist who cozies up to a government insider for reasons more political than personal. The real-world background, though suitably horrendous—doctored intelligence, extraordinary rendition, CIA black sites, harsh interrogation—seems a few years out of date; too bad DH didn't hang on to this script until Edward Snowden gave him some juicy new material to work with. That said, there are some very effective scenes in which Nighy and Gambon confront the hostile minions of the Fiennes regime (including Judy Davis); it's all very offhand and subtle, no Aaron Sorkin–style speechifying. Good chemistry between Nighy and Rachel Weisz as they forge their quasi-romantic alliance, though the ending seemed a little inconsequential. David Hare's leftist slant on things—the Americans and the Israelis are the offscreen villains—will not be congenial to some viewers, I suspect. Hoping for a sequel starring Cumberbatch and Maxine Peake, maybe with a cameo by Jessica Chastain, that focuses on the iniquities of the NSA and the GCHQ
Review of Page Eight
