Aug 31, 2001 03:04 PM
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The Tailor of Panama boasts a superb cast including Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush. Add to that acclaimed Director John Boorman at the helm and the writing skills of John le Carre, BUT This film left me COLD.
Current – and arguably the best – 007, Brosnan pulls on the spy mantle once more. But this time it is of disgraced MI 6 agent Andy Osnard who has been exiled to the diplomatic corps of Panama. Desperate to show he is worthy of a recall to the ‘big league’, Osnard looks to sniff out the big deal that will get him back into ‘circulation’.
He enlists the services of ex-Saville Row tailor Harry Pender (Rush). Harry is a tailor to the stars – well, the government officials, wheelers and dealers, movers and shakers. Osnard is hoping that Harry can be persuaded to get the low down on the corruption going on and with Harry in need of money – big time – he goes along with it. But Harry is a storyteller – a fabricator of the truth – a LIAR !
Harry’s wife works for a high ranking government official and is always bringing home documents and papers to do with the Panama Canal. This gives him the idea of string Andy the line that there are moves afoot to sell the Canal to the French, or is it the Japanese, no the Chinese. Add to that the ‘leaking’ that Harry’s boozed up pal Micky Abraxis is the ‘leader’ of an underground revolutionary ‘silent majority’ and Osnard believes he is onto something.
But it is a story of pretty lightweight proportions. You can’t get away from the fact that Brosnan IS James Bond. So his portrayal of scheming, sleazeball agent Osnard does not ring true. Rush is the archetypal ‘character actor’. He can slip into any role comfortably, but in this, he is the cheating liar - and the victim. Somehow it does not quite work.
Oh yes, and Jamie Lee Curtis is in the film – did I say? She plays Harry’s wife. The two just do not make a couple. There is no chemistry. She a statuesque, brainy American and he a struggling tailor with ‘connections. But one good thing is that we get the chance to see Jamie Lee’s naked breasts once more and in a love scene with Rush as well. No, sorry the two don’t go together – Jamie Lee and Geoffrey Rush that is, NOT her breasts!
The story meanders along and finally with Panama on the brink of being invaded by the US, to stop them selling the Canal, Harry comes clean, confesses it was all a hoax and Osnard boards a plane with a haul of $10 million, while Harry returns to his normal life of cooking breakfast for his family. Yes, that is REALLY how it ends!
But the bottom line is – we never really care one way or the other about the characters. There is no evil dictator we want to see crushed, no hero we are rooting for. Neither of the main characters have either our sympathy, nor our hatred and that is the film’s biggest flaw.
I must say that the TV and Film recreations of Le Carre’s spy tales have largely been superb. My wife and I were really looking forward to seeing this film, but were a little concerned because it did not seem to be being widely screened at Cinemas. Not a good sign I thought and very odd bearing in mind the high profile casting. Having sat through the 110 minutes of action and inaction – I now know why.
My advice is to wait for the Video, it might look better on a small screen – this is one Le Carre spy yarn that should have stayed ‘out in the Cold’.
