The Tailor of Panama

Energetic and inventive, it's a satirical, smart, grown-up thriller. more

A real movie, rich and atmospheric, savoring its disreputable characters and their human weaknesses. more

Like a Bach toccata or a frosty drink on a sunlit veranda, a first-class movie spy thriller can offer one of life's cooler, more elegant treats. The Tailor of Panama fits that category. more

Brosnan turns his typical talent on its head. So does director Boorman, who forsakes his usual tingling virtuosity. more

In a world full of off the rack thrillers, it's fine boutique quality. more

A sophisticated, subtle adult entertainment that is also a compliment to the audience. more

The film starts out as a freewheeling farce and turns into a pitch-black burlesque with surprising depths of feeling. more

A cut above last season's best studio offerings. The performances are well turned out. The morality is stylishly gray. The attitude is almost fashionable. more

Benefits from delicious acting from co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan, a mordant script co-written by le Carre (along with Boorman and Andrew Davies), and the distinctive touch of its director. more

The first really good spy movie about the impossibility, under present historical circumstances, of making a really good spy movie. more

I really don't think this does John le Carre's novel any justice at all but who would have thought John Boorman would have messed it up!? Geoffrey Rush is very good as always but apart from Harold Pinter in an inspired bit of casting, it is a bad day in the office for everyone concerned. A really interesting story but a completely forgettable film. Nice to see Mrs Curtis's breasts again though! ;o) more

Honestly, the movie's pretty ordinary. Some people drive the point that it's a satire or dark humorist's take on the spy film, but it accomplishes nothing so clever. The only thing that deviates from the typical spy mold is the main character, played by Pierce Brosnan, in a fairly atypical way. The performances given are strong, and many of the characters have texture, but they feel squandered amidst a plot that is very unimportant. The dialogue and writing have a lot of charm, but they do little to construct a plot or a sense of tension, which is what The Tailor of Panama is sorely... more

The story of a man who tells a lie that grows and grows, and it's perfectly okay. Rush is the star while Brosnan plays a secret agent who sleeps around (insert your own joke). The pacing is great so it moves along nicely, but it's so flawlessly average that you'll have forgotten it the next day. more

I was surprised by this adaptation of the novel, so much that it is now one of my favorite movies. Rush is uncomfortably spot on as the storytelling tailor, and Brosnan plays against all his spy characters as a true hedonist. more

This is a movie that does not get enough credit for what it's worth. The plot's intising and the story's interesting. What really makes the movie is the cast. It's perfectly cast. Pierce is sexy and smart, Curtis lends a strong performance, and Rush is as brilliant as he always serves to be. Though dull at parts, in the end it's a great movie. more

If before the release of John Boorman's adaptation of John le Carre's "Tailor of Panama" (scripted by the novel's author himself) anybody had told me I'd ever see Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan costarring in the same movie, I'd have snapped "And pigs fly" in response. Apparently I wasn't alone in that feeling, as Mr. Rush himself said much the same thing - although more politely - in an interview broadcast around the time the movie hit the theaters. Yet, on second thought, who'd have been more appropriate to play James Bond's evil twin than the latest incarnation of Bond himself? Who... more