A spy is never out of the game.
The plot has more holes than Swiss cheese, but this slice of cloak-and-dagger hokum does at least give former James Bond Pierce Brosnan a chance to flex his spy skills.
Here he’s an ex-CIA man, who runs up against his one-time protégé (Luke Bracey) after he steps out of the shadows to shield a vulnerable war crimes witness (played by ex-Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) from scores of murderous spooks and goons.
You’ll have seen The November Man’s espionage shenanigans done much better elsewhere, but Brosnan proves his spry spy veteran has still got what it takes while veteran director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out) keeps the action nimble.
Incidentally, the novel on which the film is based – one of author Bill Granger’s ‘November Man’ series – mostly takes place in Berlin but the producers opted to set the action in the far less expensive Serbian capital Belgrade. The end result sees Donaldson get enough bangs for his bucks to make the movie tolerably entertaining, but not so many that would spawn a series.
Certificate 15. Runtime 108 mins. Director Roger Donaldson
The November Man is showing on Sony Movie Channel on 10 March.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zFH8Zruqo
