The Tailor of Panama (2001): Dir: John Boorman / Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, Catherine McCormack, Brendan Gleeson: Geoffrey Rush is the tailor and he served a prison sentence for dealings involving the Canal. His job is to cover up until Pierce Brosnan shows up from the British Embassy forcing him to resurrect a past that he would rather forget existed. Directed by John Boorman who previously made the suspenseful Deliverance as well as the unsuspenseful flop The Exorcist 2: The Heretic. This ranks as one of his better films with its provocative themes but it still has narrative issues. We see Rush as an individual trying to do good and live out his life trying to forget his sins. This is a different role for Brosnan and he displays a vicious side that involves blackmail. Jamie Lee Curtis is well cast as Rush's wife who knows that something just isn't right but unfortunately the screenplay throws in a pointless scene where she is seduced by Brosnan. In smaller a role is Catherine McCormack but these roles are not as broad as they could be. Brendan Gleeson is another talent but underused as well. Action and thriller fans may be reluctant to approach this due to its pacing. It is a suspenseful film about skeletons in closets and the struggle to do right again. The good news is that some relationships can withstand anything and forgiveness finds a way of healing the scars of the past. Score: 6 ½ / 10

On the surface, The Tailor Of Panama is a bit of a contradiction. It's based on a novel by John le Carre, famed for his gritty and realistic spy thrillers, yet stars the man famous for playing the exact opposite of le Carre's thrillers: James Bond. But those contradictions are just on the surface, with the film itself resulting in a few surprises,Perhaps the biggest surprise of the film is Pierce Brosnan. Given that he's playing a British spy, and that the film came out in the midst of his tenure as James Bond, one might assume that he would be playing a slightly different take on 007. Nothing could be much farther than the truth. Andy Osnard is a character who is almost unlikeable: arrogant, cursing, sexist and ultimately a man with no loyalty except to himself. Yet, despite being unlikeable, Osnard (and Brosnan) is the one you can't take your eyes off of in whatever scene he's in. He's the corrupt heart and soul of the film and the film is, ultimately, better for it.The rest of the cast does well for the most part. Geoffrey Rush as the titular tailor of the title, Harry Pendel, gives a fine performance as the good with a checkered past who, drawn into Osnard's sphere of influence, begins setting a series of events in motion that threatens to unravel everything around him. There are also good performances from Catherine McCormack and David Hayman as well as Leonor Varela and Brendan Gleeson as two old revolutionaries drawn into the events around them and worse off for it. There are also some nice pseudo-cameos as well from Dylan Baker, Jonathan Hyde and noted playwright Harold Pinter as the proverbial spirit of the late Uncle Benny who acts as the conscience of his nephew Harry. The weak link of the cast is Jamie Lee Curtis who, for reasons that are unclear, has little to do in the film.If Osnard is the film's physical heart and soul, then its metaphysical one is the script based on the novel of the same name by John le Carre. By le Carre's own admission, The Tailor Of Panama is a take on Graham Greene's Our Man In Havana, updated from 1950s Cuba to late 1990s (early 2000s for the film) Panama. At the film's heart is a tale of how one man (Osnard) and his corrupting influence of those around him, told through the prism of a spy story. Intriguingly, the film in retrospect almost seems like an odd premonition of events leading up to the invasion of Iraq set in another part of the world: British intelligence that is ultimately dubious, as is its source, is used to justify a US invasion.Yet the film suffers from a glaring flaw. The film's tone is all over the place as director John Boorman has the film bouncing around between serious spy thriller, black comedy and domestic drama. The three in this case don't sit well next to one another which can lead to undermining of otherwise key moments (such as when Harry yells at those in his shop as the film begins to head towards its conclusion). The result is a film that is uneven to the point of fault.Despite the tonal issue, the film has plenty going for it. From Brosnan's performance to the strong script from the le Carre novel, The Tailor Of Panama is still an intriguing film. While neither the best spy thriller nor the best le Carre adaptation, for those who enjoy either, the film is certainly worth a viewing.

The world of espionage got a little less thrilling with the end of Cold War. It survives with different complications than just two economical and political poles fighting each other and quoting a great character from a memorable film: in this war the winner isn't the one with the most bullets but the one who controls the information. And it is this still chaotic world post Cold War that an apparent simple tailor might cause a significant turbulence on a country that still crawls as being a democratic nation.In "The Tailor of Panama" Geoffrey Rush plays Harry Pendel, a British tailor highly requested for his services by the powerful authorities of Panama, a man who seems to know anyone and everything, and he's recruited by Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), a Brit secret agent at one step to finally get retired who needs good informations about what's going on in the country with the awaited return of Canal of Panama's control by the country's officers and no longer controlled by the U.S. Reluctant but wanting to save himself from his debts, Pendel accepts this "mission" and the money that comes with it but since there isn't much going on he decides to spice things a bit by inventing that the Canal is being sold to the Chinese, and that there's a silent resistance group, led by the drunk Mickey Abraxas (Brendan Gleeson), that wants to take over the power and stop the deal. Pendel's plans get to a lower level when he's forced to spy his own wife (Jamie Lee Curtis), who works for the government. Trouble is set when Osnard shares the amazing information with his bosses, that'll share it with their American cousins, then...chaos again! John Boorman's film loses itself as being a comedy with two or three laughs, with not much depth but staying close to the original work written by John Le Carré, who paid a tribute to Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana". When it gets serious towards the ending the plot gets some credibility. It can be said that the film followed the book's quality and intentions since it's not one of Carré's greatest works, it's quite plain, with plenty of humor but not much interesting. Same thing the movie, that on a first view will confuse its viewers with many plots that aren't so great to follow. A good film, yes, but not on the same level as other Carré's film adaptations such as "The Constant Gardener", "The Russia House" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", all intriguing, attractive, seductive and interesting to follow despite the enormous spider-webs formed by the plots. Through here, we're able to see that small, ordinary people can create huge problems that might affect a country's national security for the most stupid of reasons. Also there's a sharp criticism to agencies of intelligence, so concerned about their reputation and immersed in believing in everything they hear that they forget about their liabilities, check the facts instead of following rumors. It's all about who controls the information to win the war, even if this war is just a personal cause like getting retired in style or pay all your debts, but always remembering that many will suffer with those lies even yourself, like Pendel realizes later that things got out of control.Mr. Rush shines as the title character, certainly the great pleasure of watching the film; Gleeson steals the show in his brief appearances; Curtis is almost purposeless as the tailor's wife, there isn't much she can do here; Brosnan plays this irresponsible agent as a James Bond with plenty of women but without the action and the fast cars, an irony since Bond is hated by Carré, who considers 007 as being a prostitute. Completing the casting there's Catherine McCormack, Harold Pinter, Gerard McSorley, Jon Polito, Martin Ferrero, Dylan Baker, Jonathan Hyde and Daniel Radcliffe, way before of his Harry Potter fame, playing Pendel's son.Here's an amusing and intelligent work from the same director of "Deliverance" and "Hope and Glory" that deserves a view. 7/10

The Tailor is a poor copy of a 1959 movie Our Man in Havana. The story is by Graham Greene and staring Alec Guinness. There are two points here.1. How could le Carre rip off Greene? (I have not read the le Carre book, so I don't know if he gives Greene credit.)2. How could this mediocre remake be taken as a good movie by anyone.Please watch the original then reply.xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx