Our Kind of Traitor

A SCREEN ZEALOTS REVIEW www.screenzealots.com

“Our Kind of Traitor” is the perfect anti-summer summer movie: it’s a thoughtful, talky, decidedly adult spy thriller that’s elevated by exceptional performances from top-notch acting talent and a clever, sharp script. You aren’t going to find lots of shootouts or pointless action scenes here, it’s the situations that will keep your mind actively guessing from start to finish. Director Susanna White instead chooses to focus on brains not brawn, and the result is an engrossing dramatic film with much greater depth than I expected.

Perry (Ewan McGregor) is a university professor who is on a getaway in Morocco with his barrister wife Gail (Naomie Harris). While sitting alone in the hotel bar, he strikes up a conversation with Dima (Stellan Skarsgård), who turns out to be a Russian mobster whose family is on the fast track to execution by even badder bad guys. Dima requests that Perry hand deliver a flash drive with secret information to the British government upon returning to the U.K. and sensing the imminent danger to the man’s family, Perry obliges. Soon after, Perry is approached by MI6 agent Hector (a standout performance from Damian Lewis) and becomes an integral component of an involuntary spy game.

All of the leads play perfectly off each other, each bringing a contrasting, distinctive style of character to the screen. McGregor is perfectly clueless as a professor of poetry, Lewis is proper and resourceful as a by-the-books Englishman agent dealing with government red tape, and Skarsgård is spot-on as a genial, boisterous thug. Each of these men easily deserve major award nominations for their performances.

This is a well made tale of espionage and is far better than the last John le Carré adaptation (2011’s dreadfully convoluted “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy“). “Our Kind of Traitor” is the perfect choice for adults who are just sick and tired of all the noise that’s currently clogging theaters. This isn’t your typical mindless summer fare, and I encourage all grown ups to seek it out.

A SCREEN ZEALOTS REVIEW www.screenzealots.com

Caught between the spies and a mafia gang.

I cannot voice for others, some of them did not like it, but for me this is a good film and I enjoyed it. This is a British thriller based on the book of the same name. Directed by not a so popular woman filmmaker and I think she did an awesome job. Very impressive storyline, completely unpredictable, but I felt I knew this tale and that was just because of this being too simple and yet emotionally appealed. Yep, I was not expecting that, it was a surprise and in the end, I happy that I saw it despite many negative responses.

This is a story of a London university professor Perry, who meets a Russian man called Dima during vacationing in Morocco with his wife. A simple meeting becomes a normal friendship, but later Dima reveals his true identity and asks him for a favour. Perry tries to do what Dima asked for, but that puts the couple in a tight spot. So now they're caught between the two people, not knowing how it all ends, the film in the next half is to reveal the result of the tale. I liked the line that said when Perry asked Dima why did you choose me?

Not just the British actors, but Stellan Skarsgard looked so great, even in his limited part. The highlight was the swift pace, a quickly told story, but it ran for over hundred minutes. The overall atmosphere created to tell the tale was excellent, just like what a spy thriller needed. There are some edgy moments, but the stunts were limited. This is an R rated film, only because of the small scale of drugs, nudes and languages, but it does not deserve that. Maybe that was intentionally done to make it look like a grown-up's film. I think I can recommend it and I hope you enjoy it as well.

7/10

When this movie begins, logic leaves the room.

I saw this movie very recently, but I had no high expectations other than the work of McGregor and Skarsgard, two actors I consider generally solid and committed to each project in which they are involved. I greatly appreciate a good spy movie (James Bond movies were the first to arouse this interest, many years ago) and it's always pleasant to see a good suspense plot. However, the screaming flaws of this movie are so blatant that it is difficult to enjoy it without a certain bitter mouth.

I do not question the efforts of director Susanna White, I am convinced that she did what she could with the cast, crew and producers in charge. The proof is that it technically has no obvious flaws: it has good sets, some good action scenes and some dramatic loading (very few considering the theme and the kind of film) and a regular cinematography, which did not use the iconic landscapes of the places where action is taking place, but still gives us a little of these environments. The big failure is the absence of a consistent dramatic tension fortified by a good script. The audience sees the film with the interest of those who are seeing advertising on TV.

The cast also does not deserve heavy disapproval. I am sure neither Ewan McGregor nor Stellan Skarsgard will consider this a major work of their careers. However, it is undeniable they both embodied their characters well and dealt with their challenges positively. I have more doubts about Naomie Harris: In addition to having no time on scene, she has such a strongly secondary character that she almost becomes a McGregor's prop, going where he goes and doing what he asks. I've seen trained dogs less obedient than this wife, who has just been betrayed and is totally serene about it. This makes no sense, but it is the least illogical thing we will see. Damian Lewis embodied a British secret agent who begins to act on the edge between what he has to do and what he should not do, even counteracting and ignoring superior direct orders. If this is not insubordination in the ranks, I don't know what this can be.

And so we come to the heart of all the problems, that is, the script. As I have previously written in other texts, the key to a good movie invariably goes through a good script, and we lack good scripts. There are excellent ideas, great premises, but the development is so poor that it often ruins the movie. The film begins with an intriguing idea: a mobster who fears for his life and wants to save his family by cooperating with the authorities. The plot around this is horrible: How can we believe the characters make such unreasonable decisions? I don't want to go into detail, but the mere idea of trusting a stranger that was nearby by chance, as that mobster decided to do, is so stupid, so naive... it makes no sense, it's too thoughtless, and most people would never accept risking the neck to help a stranger. Regardless of this, the film presents its plot, hoping that we swallow it without thinking. With me, it didn't work.