Our Kind Of Traitor (2016): My Kind of Thriller

Taken from the novel by John LeCarre, Our Kind of Traitor is a well written, tightly scripted, adroitly directed film featuring excellent acting, a plot one can actually follow that makes sense pretty much, with some great, scenic locations which, however, do not divert our attention from the plot. The movie features the considerable talents of Damien Lewis, Naomie Harris, Jeremy Northam, and especially Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård.*

The story starts with a Hitchcockian flourish: An English couple, Perry (McGregor), a poetics professor, and his wife Gail (Harris), a barrister, are vacationing in Morocco, when they are befriended by a charismatic, mysteriously wealthy, aggressively convivial Russian (Skarsgård). Then this guy asks Perry to do him a favor, one thing leads to another and pretty soon Perry and Gail are caught up in international intrigue, with the Russian mob after them, British Intelligence manipulating them, and the lives of the Russian and his family (not to mention themselves) on the line. Money, loyalty, the British banking system, political corruption, marital infidelity – you name it, it gets pretty complicated.

This is just the second feature film for director Susanna White who, for the past 15 years, has honed her craft as the director of several TV mini-series, among them the BBC/PBS produced Bleak House (2005) and Jane Eyre (2006), and the BBC/HBO production of Parade’s End (2012). Here, she displays a deft touch with actors and action, keeping things moving, pausing to allow the characters (and us) to learn new facts, and ponder new perils. Not that this is an action film in the modern sense – there are no extravagant bloodbaths, ultra-elaborate car chases, or highway mayhem, There’s but one explosion that I can recall, no explicit sex, and limited salaciousness of any sort.

(Okay, in the interest of full disclosure: Our Kind Of Traitor has earned an “R” rating from the folks at  MPAA “for violence, language throughout, some sexuality, nudity and brief drug use”. Technically accurate, I guess, but frankly I think the R derives primarily from the fact that the nudity includes a glimpse of male genitalia.)

Anyhow, Our Kind of Traitor is an intelligent, old fashioned thriller, a bit of a rarity nowadays – and my kind of movie.

One hour forty-eight minutes.

In semi-wide release.

[* A tip of the hat to BD, from whom I essentially cribbed the rather succinct opening summary.]