In a canon including films as captivating and perfect as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Constant Gardener, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Guinness or Oldman), Our Kind of Traitor is definitely not the cream of the dowdy-spy crop. But it is still an entertaining and stylish John le Carré adaptation, its linear and largely predictable plot nicely complicated by grey-on-grey morality and a characteristic air of tightly wound suspicion. Perry (Ewan McGregor) and Gail (Naomie Harris) are an estranged English couple hoping to reignite their relationship with a romantic holiday in Morocco. Their trip is upended by a fateful encounter with a wealthy Russian man (Stellan Skarsgård), a mafia money launderer hoping to defect to the West before he is betrayed by his organization's volatile new leader. Under nearly constant surveillance and with few options, he enlists Perry as an intermediary, entrusting him with information to entice MI6. Though incredibly talented both, the McGregor and Harris characters are rather flat; their marital discord is so briefly referenced as to be nonexistent, and the escalation of their civilian involvement in the espionage intrigue never rings entirely true. Skarsgård, however, delivers a tremendous performance, his masculine bluster and jovial vulgarity clearly disguising a growing fear for his family's well-being. Superb, too, is Damian Lewis as a dutiful, particularly pursed MI6 agent in the vein of le Carré's anti-Bond, George Smiley. The other true star is cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, capturing the atmosphere and in-the-moment energy of various locales, including Bern, London, Marrakesh, and Paris, with almost luridly saturated colors and an eye for chicly reflective surfaces.

B

This is a very straight forward thriller with a little bit of spying in it. The final twist though is good and heartbreaking at the same time. This is more of an acting showcase than a brilliant storytelling movie. The problem is that while everyone is good no one is really a standout. Stellan Skarsgård as the mafia is great, the best of the lot, most of his scenes have so much of face masking/double agent work its really good to see though nothing that we haven't seen from this talented actor before. Damian Lewis as the obsessed MI6 agent who would just do almost anything even go to the dark side is very believable in here. McGregor is very casual and routine in the movie, quite disappointed because some of his scenes need more urgency/tension on his face. His chemistry with Harris is off, their marital problems resolution is an after-thought and unbelievable. Its a decent but by-the-books thriller. Not to say it boring because each scene in the movie is presented nicely and it keeps you engaged throughout but the story's predictability or the lack of twists takes away the urgency.

6/10