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Dom Robinson reviews
what a good spy needs is a spy of his own.
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: CDR 31270
- Running time: 105 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 17 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailers, Alternate Ending, Filmographies, Featurette,Director’s Commentary
Director:
- John Boorman
(Beyond Rangoon, Deliverance, The Emerald Forest, Excalibur, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The General, Hell in the Pacific, Hope and Glory, Point Blank, The Tailor of Panama, Zardoz)
Producer:
- John Boorman
Screenplay:
- John Boorman, John Le Carre and Andrew Davies
Music:
- Shaun Davey
Cast:
- Andrew Osnard: Pierce Brosnan
Harry Pendel: Geoffrey Rush
Louisa Pendel: Jamie Lee Curtis
Marta: Leonor Varela
Michelangelo “Mickie” Abraxas: Brendan Gleeson
Uncle Benny: Harold Pinter
Francesca Deane: Catherine McCormack
Maltby: John Fortune
Cavendish: Jonathan Hyde
Ramon Rudd: Jon Polito
The Tailor of Panamais a spy film based on the John Le Carre novel and features Pierce Brosnanas Andrew Osnard, more of a renegade spy and a ‘bad boy’ rather than the goodytwo-shoes he can appear to be in the Bond series.
The film opens with the words:
“Often called the 8th wonder of the world, the Panama Canal was built byAmerican Engineers and operated by the US Army for 85 years. At the end of1999 it was controversially handed back to Panama leading to intense speculationabout the future of this vital gateway. Meanwhile in a corner of Panama City,plying his trade was the tailor of Panama.”
That man, Harry Pendel, is played by Geoffrey Rush and the two meetbecause it’s Andrew’s last chance at a spy given his slip-ups in England suchas having an affair with an ambassador’s mistress and Pendel’s wife,Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), works for the Panamanian president and theaim is to discover what the President intends to do with the canal. As rewardfor his help, Andrew will be able to help Harry clear all his debts withoutrestoring to the Panamanian equivalent of lifeforce-sucking companies like”Dial4aLoan” and “Ocean Finance”.
There’s great performances from the two leads, with humour and chemistry droppedin from time to time, but their strength is lessened from a story that dragsand just isn’t very interesting to begin with. According to theInternet Movie Database,this film did get a cinema release in April 2001 but it’s one that passed meby so it can hardly have been a high-profile one.
The rest of the cast is made up with Pendel’s assistant and old acquaintance-cum-mistressMarta (Leonor Varela), his old friend who had certain dealings withNoreiga “Mickie” Abraxas (Brendan Gleeson) and British Embassy membersCatherine McCormack and John Fortune.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic,but dark scenes tend to shimmer at times which is a bit disconcerting, butonly seems to happen earlier on in the film. Other than that, the pictureis free of artifacts.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but rarely gets a chance to shine becauseit’s not an action film and the only audio other than dialogue is in a nightclubscene and the score, liberally-sprinkled with flamenco guitars.
The extras consist of a 2-minute non-anamorphic 16:9 Trailer for thisfilm, plus more for Finding Forrester, The Legends of the Fall andDevil in a Blue Dress, cast and crew Filmographies, a 25-minuteFeaturette entitled “The Perfect Fit: A Conversation with Pierce Brosnanand Geoffrey Rush”, which does exactly what it says on the tin and includesfilm clips, but occasionally the face-on interview shots are mixed withpointless side-on shaky camerawork like you see occasionally used on TV DIY showsand it’s pissing annoying.
Also included is a feature-length Director’s Commentary and anAlternate Ending running for five minutes and suffers from not beinganamorphic, nor in DD5.1, but has the option of director’s commentary on itself.
For a Columbia DVD there are the usual 28 chapters present and subtitlesin 17 languages: English, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish,Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish,Swedish and Turkish, plus Dutch subtitles for the audio commentary (why notEnglish too?)The main menu is nicely animated and scored with music from the film anda scrolling set of enhanced picture stills from the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.