Al's Omniflick: The November Man

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The November Man

**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Roger Donaldson/Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko and Will Patton

The problem with The November Man is that I can't recall the names of the other movies whose plots it mimics, re-works or merely robs. Strangely enough, it didn't evoke a yawn and thanks to Pierce Brosnan's magnetism, it proved to be mostly digestable.

The film resuscitates the elder-agent-trains-a-protege-who-is-one-day-asked-to-liquidate-his-father-figure/teacher-thereby-causing-angst-doubt-and-trepidation-for-the-former-student plot that has been given a workout in recent years. If that seems like one too many dashes for you, know I spared you many more.

Pierce Brosnan plays Peter Devereaux, a former CIA agent now living in Switzerland sans the occupational hazards he faced in his former life. In the film's opening scene, we watch Devereaux in action during a past operation in Montenegro which took place five years before. Devereaux's protege is the young, handsome David Mason (Luke Bracey), who is warned about getting involved with women after the callow agent shares an intimate moment with a waitress in an outdoor cafe.
Not long after, the two men are part of a task force assigned to protect an ambassador. During the Ambassador's public speech, Mason mans a sniper rifle inside a hotel room, monitoring the crowd for potential targets. When a shooter reveals himself, Mason's gunfire not only strikes his target but a small child as well. The incident casts a dark cloud of failure as a mentor on Devereaux and is supposed to serve as an harbinger of future conflict between the two men.

In present-day Switzerland, Devereaux is coerced out of retirement by a former fellow CIA colleague. His mission is to pull an agent working close to a Russian politician named Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski), out of the country before her identity and mission are exposed. The CIA wants information on Arkady, which concerns an incident in his past that is sure to cripple his Presidential ambitions if brought to light. The agent working close to Arkady is a woman we learn is Devereaux's ex-lover, Natalia Ulanova (Mediha Musliovic), who is also the mother of his child. Mason, who is now a veteran CIA operative, leads a mission which works at cross-purposes with Devereaux's, as he is assigned the task of eliminating Ulanova. During a high speed pursuit, Ulanova's car crashes, leaving her exposed to Mason, who picks her off with his sniper rifle. Before Devereaux can escape, Mason identifies him, which brings him to the attention of Mason's superiors at Langley.

The story shifts to Belgrade, Serbia, where a young woman named Alice, (Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko) who operates a refuge for former prostitutes, becomes a target of Federov. The Russian presidential-hopeful is hell-bent on eliminating everyone from his past who may know something about his nefarious, mysterious deed, including Alice. Federov's assassin, a nasty piece of work named Alexa (played with venom and malice by Amila Terzimehic) is on Alice's trail, as is Mason, who has also been assigned the task of killing Devereaux for obstructing the CIA operation in Moscow. Devereaux becomes Alice's protector from all who want her eliminated. Get all that?

We eventually learn what dark, devastating secret both the CIA, Federov and Alice are concealing. Mixed into this tangle of a plot is the cat and mouse game between Devereaux and Mason, which becomes an uninteresting narrative thread but one Donaldson must pursue obligatorily to its end.

The story holds one's interest for most of the film. Donaldson is a seasoned pro with thrillers and is able to keep the byzantine plot from bogging down in confusing details. The problem with the plot, which is supposed to be the film's narrative centerpiece; is the dual between Devereaux and Mason. Their conflict interrupts the momentum of Federov/Alice story, which is the film's plot strength. It also burdens the movie with some implausible moments, like Devereaux seeking out Mason in his apartment, where he holds a knife to his girlfriend's throat. If the scene is supposed to ratchet up the tension between the two it comes off more as a head-scratcher. Why seek out your would-be assassin and give him an opportunity to kill you to make a point that seems nebulous at best? It hobbles the narrative and creates a lapse in logic that causes the movie to stumble.

The Devereaux/Mason melee is also just not very interesting. Though Bracey learns Devereaux gave him a failing grade on a CIA trainee assessment report, we never feel he overcomes his mentor's assessment. I wish Mason were as intriguing as Alexa, whose lethal single-mindedness made her a more formidable character.

So we have a former Bond and a former Bond girl (Kurylenko) together onscreen again. Devereaux is less suave than Bond but he's just as indestructible.

The film exceeded my low expectations, but didn't budge any further than that. It was an acceptable excuse to escape a warm and steamy afternoon. It didn't lull me into REM sleep but if you ask me about the film next weekend, I may have trouble recalling any details. If pressed, I'll say I remember Brosnan, an exotic Ukrainian woman and some dull American actor as the film's co-stud. I might even remember...er...uh--wait a minute, what were we talking about?

No comments:

Post a Comment

On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.