A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific as a German espionage agent tracking Muslim activity in Hamburg in this thriller based on the John Le Carré novel, but Mary Ellen, Isaac, and I checked the time frequently during the second hour. Hoffman (last blogged in A Late Quartet) is supported by Grigoriy Dobrygin, Rachel McAdams (most recently in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) whom we didn't believe as a German national, Homayoun Ershadi (starred in The Kite Runner (2007) and was in Zero Dark Thirty), Willen Dafoe (last in The Grand Budapest Hotel), and Robin Wright (most recently blogged in Moneyball, before her tour de force in House of Cards). I do want to mention Daniel Brühl, who had almost no lines as a German spy in this movie, but starred in a hilarious comedy about Germany post-Berlin Wall called Goodbye Lenin! (2003).

Director Anton Corbijn's last picture, The American, is one I didn't like one bit, so this is a step up. The shadowy cinematography by Benoît Delhomme (One Day) and music by Herbert Grönemeyer (he also scored The American and has a small part in this one) are perfectly acceptable. Clips from the soundtrack are available on its amazon page.

Hoffman, who died of an overdose in February, will appear in two more Hunger Games movies, so this is not his last project. But it's not the one I'll remember him by. That said, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are coming in at a whopping 91. Audiences are more in line with me at 71.