One cannot watch
Anton Corbijn’s ultra-tense “A Most Wanted Man” without mourning Philip Seymour
Hoffman’s shocking death. “Most” is Hoffman’s final lead role, a notion that undeniably
hovers over every dark frame. This story is rooted in futility and a man facing
certain doom, likely eternal loneliness. Hoffman is chain-smoker German spy
chief Gunther Bachmann, suffocating under the pressure of his job: Tracking suspected
Middle Eastern terrorists in Germany post-9/11. The trick: Bachmann wants his suspects walking free to lead
him to larger, more dangerous targets. His latest mark is a maybe innocent son
(Grigoriy Dobrygin) of a war criminal who may want to truly dissolve his
father’s ill-gotten future. The man brings into his circle a banker (Willem
Dafoe) and a lawyer (Rachel McAdams) who quickly realize there are no bystanders
in terrorism. More so, Bachmann is being hounded by bureaucrats to make arrests
now, forget logistics. Who’s right? Who’s innocent? Nothing matters, and from
the John Le Carre book from which this comes, that mindset can only lead to
another dark day. The finale is a pulverizing gut punch. Hoffman
truly marvels as a tired man crumbling before us. See it nonetheless. A
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