Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: John Boorman
Rated: MA15+
IT is surprising to find Pierce Brosnan playing another British spy.
One would think the producers of James Bond would have tried to prevent it, especially when Brosnan assumes the suave, smooth-talking, sexist demeanour of his 007 persona.
As Andrew Osnard in The Tailor of Panama, however, Brosnan is a much more deceitful and a less successful special agent.
The Tailor of Panama is Harry Pendal (Geoffrey Rush), an English gentlemen’s outfitter in “the best Saville Row tradition”. Pendal dresses the Panamanian top brass and so is full of gossip and self-importance.
He is married to Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), who works in the administration of the politically sensitive Panama Canal Authority.
Osnard is sent to find out Panama’s intentions in regard to the canal. As a means of getting to Louisa and the inside story, Osnard befriends Harry. He has done his homework on his new friend and knows all about Harry’s very shady past. In an attempt to stop Osnard exposing him, Harry makes up a story about Panama wanting to sell the canal. One lie begets another and it all spins out of control.
With such a fine cast and John Boorman directing, The Tailor of Panama should have been a great romp. Adapted from John Le Carre’s novel of the same name, by Le Carre, Boorman and Andrew Davies, it is regularly amusing, but fails to light up the screen. It is always a risky business having the novelist part of the screen writing team. Le Carre is also the executive producer.
At 109 minutes this small and predictable Pinocchio story needed more editing to give it punch. For the first time, I found Geoffrey Rush’s characterisation, of Harry, unbelievable. His English accent is poorly realised and distracting.
Brosnan is objectionably sleazy as Osnard and Curtis’s Louisa is too naive and hysterical by turns. The Panamanians are made to look like such buffoons that Le Carre and company could be accused of racism.
I have not read the novel but it must be better than this film, so save your money and get stitched into The Tailor of Panama at the local library.
