Director
John Boorman has been responsible for some truly great movies. Films like Deliverance
and Hope and Glory are two of my favorites. Now, he returns with his first film
since the striking The General.
The
Tailor of Panama features Geoffrey Rush as a suit-maker in Panama city. Pierce
Brosnan is a British spy who decides to blackmail Rush into digging up dirt and
information from the various politicians he suits up. Before long, things become
chaotic as Rush gets in over his head.
Rush
plays the tailor as a shy, tall tale telling nerd. He is believable in the role,
but it's hardly a part of great depth. Brosnan, on the other hand, seems to take
devilish glee in his role as a self assured womanizer who will do anything to
get what he wants. He's smug and absolutely hilarious in the part. Jamie Lee Curtis
is effective but seems a bit out of place as Rush's loving wife. The film's best
performance comes from Brendan Gleeson (Braveheart) as Rush's drunken, loudmouth
buddy.
What really
took me off guard in The Tailor of Panama, is how funny it is. I expected a straight
faced spy and espionage thriller, and while the picture has a fare share of that,
it also has a rather strange sense of humor. Particularly the scenes featuring
Dylan Baker as an over the top military man (think Alec Baldwin in Pearl Harbor).
Boorman
directs at a rather slow pace and never really gives us the sense of tension that
the movie needs to fully succeed. Still, the picture does offer up some good surprises.
The Tailor of Panama is also punctuated with a great ending in which every character
gets what's coming to them. As a spy flick, I wouldn't rank The Tailor of Panama
with David Mamet's brilliant The Spanish Prisoner, but it is entertaining nonetheless,
and it should also be noted that for a Brosnan movie, I liked it more then The
Thomas Crown Affair and that last crappy James Bond flick.
