There is so little that I can say about A Most Wanted Man, the stylish, moody new thriller from director Anton Corbijn (Control) without spoiling it for you, so I’m just going to say the following:
1. It’s really good. There’s a point where this fact sets in, before which you might think you were just watching a “pretty good” spy movie. It’s a cool trick, but you gotta wait for it.
2. This is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last leading role, and Christ, he nails it. Against all odds, too: Hoffman plays a grumpy alcoholic spy, and I’m pretty sure he’s wearing prosthetic eyebrows. It could have gone so wrong. It doesn’t. RIP PSH. I hear your quavery heavy breathing every time the wind whistles through the trees.
3. I wish Willem Dafoe had a German accent in every movie.
4. Speaking of German accents: the (recently mandatory) “chase through a flashy dance club” scene in this movie features a song by the great 1980s German industrial/EBM group Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft instead of dubstep. Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft! I’m pretty sure it was them, at least… I was a little too dazed to make it through the end credits.
5. Americans are fucking simpletons. Just the worst.
