Good evening! As this particular Sunday comes to a close, it is the most WONDERFUL feeling knowing that tomorrow may be Monday….but THIS Monday is NOT a work day! Yea!! Nice to have 3 full days off to enjoy, by both relaxing AND being productive. So, with that out of the way, we come to my newest film review, the 4th of this holiday weekend……I give you this week’s new theatrical release, “The November Man”.
Directed by Roger Donaldson (“The Recruit“, “Dante’s Peak“, “Thirteen Days“) and based on the 1987 novel “There Are No Spies” by Bill Granger, the story initially takes us to Montenegro in 2008 and also introduces us to CIA operatives Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) and his protégé, David Mason (Luke Bracy) as they are on mission to protect a visiting ambassador. We can see Devereaux and Mason have a somewhat love/hate relationship, with the student seemingly wanting to please the master, yet also we feel, eclipse him. However, when this mission takes a southward turn, and a innocent is caught in the crossfire, the two split ways. The story then jumps forwards 5 years to 2013, and Devereaux has since retired and is attempting to live a quiet life in Switzerland. When his former CIA boss, John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich) comes calling, wanting him to re-enter active status to locate and extract an inside source, Natalia Ulanova (Mediha Musliovic), from her position as aide to a former Russian general Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski) who is on his way to becoming the new Russian President. Devereaux takes the mission, but then finds himself caught in a much different situation that puts HIM in the CIA’s crosshairs after another tragic event occurs during the extraction attempt. To add an even greater challenge to the whole scenario, a CIA higher-up, Perry Weinstein (Will Patton), sends Mason as the lead agent to go after his former mentor, as the action has now switched to Belgrade, Serbia. Devereaux begins to piece together a much larger picture, however, while eluding Mason and his team. It appears that there is a much more than mildly devastating past event in Chechnya that was put in play by Federov and possibly others, and a single witness to much OF that planning and execution is alive and now in the sights of those who wish to silence her, from the CIA to a Russian assassin, Alexa (Amila Terzimehic). Devereaux enlists the aid of a local refugee aid worker, Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko) and one of his former Russian contacts Denisov (Dragan Marinkovic) to dig deeper into a building cover up that has everyone second guessing who to actually trust, who to BLAME for everything, and also that certain people may not be who we think they actually are. And in the midst of it all are Devereaux and Mason, still at odds over the events of 5 years ago, and are now at each other’s heels, while all around them, twists, deception, and violence erupts. It soon becomes one breakneck tale of shifting alliances, lies being exposed, truths being unveiled, and secrets coming to light, all careening toward an inevitable conclusion that will affect all people, governments, and agencies involved. This whole tale has a LOT of other details to it, and of course, to explain it ALL would be spoilers but also rather lengthy. Therefore I will trust this basic overview will suffice….cause I am not giving more details away.
Well….I have to say, there was a LOT (and I DO mean a LOT!!!) going on in this film story-wise. If I WERE into spoiling everything, to truly explain ALL the details of what occurred in the film would be a Herculean task. I found myself a bit confused following the movie at times, as there were so many little sub-plots that tied into the MAIN plot as it all unfolded that you really did have to pay attention to keep up with it. You could say the ultimate gist of it all was the cat & mouse game that ends up coming about between Devereaux and Mason, but on top of that was all the REST of what the two men were actually in the middle of. Pierce does a good job in this role, I mean, let’s be honest, it was kind of like a edgier/darker form of James Bond. So it wasn’t like this was any stretch to see Brosnan play. And he CAN pull this type of character off with both the cold, calculating posture of a bitter ex-CIA agent to the more “heroic” side of Devereaux in his trying to protect those most valuable to the mission he’s on and the truths that are being uncovered. Bracy does equally well as Mason, and again, this wasn’t really a role about range. Mason is in a position to learn more from his mentor, but really doesn’t feel he should HAVE to and wants to prove he is even better, though he falls into on particular situation that Devereaux had always warned him about, and there is a chilling scene involving the two of them and a woman Mason is involved with. Smitrovich is always good for playing the shady characters, and he continues that streak here. Olga is no stranger to spy films herself, having been the lead actress in the second Daniel Craig-led Bond film, “Quantum of Solace“. The other supporting characters all so their part. The film moves along at a decent pace, but it isn’t ALL frenetic action, allowing moments of calm to dig at least a LITTLE more into character development and necessary backstory. And as I hinted above, it is VERY “busy” in various plot points, so paying attention was a VERY needed element! Content was well deserving of its “R” rating, mostly due to language and serious violence via visceral gunfights and other forms of edged or blunt force mayhem. The thing is, what ultimately bothered me the most were multiple moments of seriously NEEDLESS nudity (albeit brief, but still) and one bedroom scene that had NO business at ALL being in the story other than “because they could”, at least in my opinion. That type of content taken to certain levels is a peeve of mine BIG time when it comes to movies more and more these days. Again, it is material that often has NO bearing on ANYTHING, and is simply gratuitous. Overall, this will be a film for me that is a “once and done” kind of thing. Not spectacular, but not totally horrible, it kind of settles in between the “it was good” or “Eh, it was ok” categories for this viewer. I have heard the studio is wanting to do a sequel already, despite this first effort having just opened. So it will be interesting to see if they choose to move forward and possibly give Pierce another franchise role. There are much better overall spy films out there (“The Recruit“, “Spy Game“, the Daniel Craig Bond films), so take this for what it is if you do choose to see it or know that I feel you aren’t really missing anything if you don’t with the better offerings out there for this genre. BUT..I digress because….
AS always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
