This is based upon a true story.
Morris "Moe" Berg (Paul Rudd) was major league back-up catcher for the Boston Red Sox. In 1944, after Moe's baseball career, he takes a job with the Office of Strategic Service (precursor to the CIA) and was ordered by Director William Donovan (Jeff Daniels)) to go overseas to find out if German physicist Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong) is building an atomic bomb for the Nazis and if he is, Berg's orders are to kill him.
We see that Moe Berg knows many languages and this endures him to Donovan who wants to use him to find out about Heisenberg. Moe also plays baseball, and we don't see too much of that and Red Sox Manager Joe Cronin (Shea Whigham) wants Moe to retire.
The beginning of this story seems to question if Moe Berg is gay. Perhaps the reason for this is that Moe is a very private man. Many refer to him as an enigma. When Moe goes to Japan we saw he held hands with Japanese Delegate Isao Kawabata (Hiroyuki Sanda). His girlfriend Estella Huni (Sienna Miller) wants Moe to make a commitment to her.
He goes to Italy with Major Furman (Guy Pierce) and physicist Samuel Goudsmit (Paul Giamatti) who will ask his friend and fellow physicist Paul Scherrer (Tom Wilkinson) to invite Heisenberg to Sweden for a lecture. This is done so that Moe Berg can interview Heisenberg.
This is somewhat slow going, but this is also quite engaging mostly due to the dialogues of all and they are spot on. We see that Moe Berg is suited for this spy work and Paul Rudd does a very credible job.
A very interesting aspect is when Moe Berg meets Heisenberg, who is watching a chess board. Heisenberg tells Mr. Aziz (Moe using that name now) to look and study the board and he does. Then after a minute or so Heisenberg collapses all the chessmen. From this point both Heisenberg and Aziz play the game using only their minds of what they saw on the chess board. Really good.
At the end you will see statements of what happened to all. Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes, in the beginning. Nudity: Yes, brief. Humor: Yes at times. Language: Yes. One F-bomb only in the beginning. Rating: B
Morris "Moe" Berg (Paul Rudd) was major league back-up catcher for the Boston Red Sox. In 1944, after Moe's baseball career, he takes a job with the Office of Strategic Service (precursor to the CIA) and was ordered by Director William Donovan (Jeff Daniels)) to go overseas to find out if German physicist Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong) is building an atomic bomb for the Nazis and if he is, Berg's orders are to kill him.
We see that Moe Berg knows many languages and this endures him to Donovan who wants to use him to find out about Heisenberg. Moe also plays baseball, and we don't see too much of that and Red Sox Manager Joe Cronin (Shea Whigham) wants Moe to retire.
The beginning of this story seems to question if Moe Berg is gay. Perhaps the reason for this is that Moe is a very private man. Many refer to him as an enigma. When Moe goes to Japan we saw he held hands with Japanese Delegate Isao Kawabata (Hiroyuki Sanda). His girlfriend Estella Huni (Sienna Miller) wants Moe to make a commitment to her.
He goes to Italy with Major Furman (Guy Pierce) and physicist Samuel Goudsmit (Paul Giamatti) who will ask his friend and fellow physicist Paul Scherrer (Tom Wilkinson) to invite Heisenberg to Sweden for a lecture. This is done so that Moe Berg can interview Heisenberg.
This is somewhat slow going, but this is also quite engaging mostly due to the dialogues of all and they are spot on. We see that Moe Berg is suited for this spy work and Paul Rudd does a very credible job.
A very interesting aspect is when Moe Berg meets Heisenberg, who is watching a chess board. Heisenberg tells Mr. Aziz (Moe using that name now) to look and study the board and he does. Then after a minute or so Heisenberg collapses all the chessmen. From this point both Heisenberg and Aziz play the game using only their minds of what they saw on the chess board. Really good.
At the end you will see statements of what happened to all. Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes, in the beginning. Nudity: Yes, brief. Humor: Yes at times. Language: Yes. One F-bomb only in the beginning. Rating: B