Pierce Brosnan is back in a genre for which he is known, as a secret agent, but does he succeed in playing the role of yet another but highly skilled CIA agent in the new action thriller The November Man?
Well, as far as his performance is concerned, he is pretty watchable but the film somehow failed to catch great attention because of its not-so-engaging and elucidating storyline.
Based on Bill Granger’s novel There Are No Spies, the film follows Peter Devereaux, code-named The November Man who is now running a cafe shop in Switzerland after retiring from his service following an accidental death of a child in one of his operations while protecting a US Ambassador. Now, he is been reactivated by his former boss John Hanley for a special mission to draw out an undercover agent from Moscow.
The undercover agent Natalia Ulanova, who is now working as a personal assistant to a former Russian Army General and now a presidential candidate Arkady Fedorov, is, in fact, has valuable information on the involvement of Fedorov in war crimes.
On his new mission, Devereaux couldn’t save Natalia but got the name Alice Fournier who is the prime witness of Fedorov’s crime. Soon, Devereaux discovers that the person who killed Natalia is, in fact, one of his former friends and CIA agent David Mason.
In such a conflicting situation where Devereaux is now the target of Mason and he sees the greater danger to his personal life, he must reach out to the truth and those actually involved in this messy political spy thriller.
Watch the movie trailer – ‘The November Man’
The problem with the makers of the film is that they presented quite a few sub-plots in the most simplistic way possible by not highlighting any of those, be it Chechen war crimes, sex trafficking, or the life of an agent.
The November Man never comes out of the clichés of the genre while portraying characters in a one-dimensional way. There are a number of flaws in the pace and storytelling. I don’t understand how come Pierce Brosnan’s character ‘Peter,’ who is supposed to be the Hero of the film and who believes in saving lives, ends up hurting the girlfriend of Mason.
Then how come there are no police while the agents keep on playing their cat-mouse game with guns blazing from all sides, and the next moment you see life as usual on the streets.
If you are a great fan of spy thrillers then you may give it a watch but do not expect too much as there is nothing to remind you of the likes of those old Bond or Bourne movie series. You may see plenty of action but no memorable sequence to cheer for. Director Roger Donaldson who had already worked with Brosnan on the 1997 hit Dante’s Peak simply couldn’t recreate the magic with a mediocre screenplay.
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko, Mediha Musliovic, Eliza Taylor, Bill Smitrovich
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Released Date: November 25, 2014
Where to watch "The November Man" (2014)
