THE NOVEMBER MAN – The Review

With apologies to Irving Berlin and Annie Oakley, for Hollywood there’s no business like spy business, especially in the last decade or so. Now, secret agents and undercover operatives have been the protagonists of thrillers since the silent movie era. But things really popped in those swingin’ sixties when 007 twirled around and fired at the camera lens. Bond is the franchise that would never die and aside from Matt Helm and Derek Flint in that early decade, never had any serious competition until Matt Damon floated up as Jason Bourne a dozen years ago. He ushered in an era of more realistic, grittier spies who also helped inspire new film versions of the works of John le Carre’ such as the recent A MOST WANTED MAN. Much in this same vein comes THE NOVEMBER MAN, a flick combining the mystery and deception of that author along with that brutal Bourne action. And just who portrays the title “winter agent”? Why it’s none other than former James Bond, Mr. Pierce Brosnan. No time for tuxes and martinis for this caper. He’s too busy dodging bullets and running for his life through Eastern Europe.

The story begins with a mission from just a few years ago. Veteran CIA agent Peter Devereaux (Brosnan) and the young agent he has mentored , David Mason (Luke Bracey) are to thwart an assassination attempt in the life of a diplomat. The target’s life is saved, but not without an unforseen tragedy caused by David’s impulsive decisions. Flash forward to now and Peter owns a seaside restaurant. He’s surprised by a visit from his former CIA handler, a fella’ ironically named Hanley (Bill Smitrovich). Seems an agent needs to be extracted from her mission, posing as an assistant to a rising Soviet politico named Ferderov. The agent will only leave with Peter, who insists he’s out of the spy game until Hanley says the agent is Natalia Ulanova. Peter’s back in. But this is no simple extraction as Peter and Natalia are pursued by a Russian hit squad and a team from the CIA led by, you guessed it, David Mason! Peter tries to uncover the master mind behind the double cross as he protects social worker Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko) who may know the whereabouts of Ferderov’s ex-mistress, a woman who will expose his deadly past. Can the aging agent stay several steps ahead of the soviets (especially a female master assassin) and his eager for revenge former pupil?

Brosnan shows us (particularly his 007 ex-employers) that he’s lost none of his action icon moves after a dozen years away from Bond. And this after joining the 60 plus crowd (along with most of THE EXPENDABLES and Liam Neeson). But Devereaux is not a copy of that silky smooth agent, and he’s not a parody as Brosnan played in THE MATADOR. There’s a heavy melancholy about him shown with a suggested drinking problem (during any lull he’s gulping down the scotch like prohibition’s coming back). Plus he’s mush more ruthless, even inflicting grievous harm to an innocent in order to make a point with his former charge. Along with that sadness, Brosnan shows us the man’s exhaustion, not only from battle, but from the tiring, unending deceptions and conspiracies. Although he walked away from it, that old life stays with him like a tethered spectre. Bracey leaves an impression as the unpolished younger agent whom his ex-mentor calls “a blunt instrument”. He’s content on being a “company man”, completing missions without questioning. Fortunately the reunion with his old teacher opens his eyes, and Bracey shows us a man who realizes he was losing his soul. He’ll not just blinding obey from here on. Kurylenko, herself a oo7 veteran (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), is still a fetching damsel-in-distress, who reveals her tougher side as the story races to its surprising conclusion (many of those surprises involve this “paper-pusher”). Smitrovich is a terrific, snarling pitbull of lifelong spy manager, while Will Patton is all cold business efficiency as the button-down man pulling all the strings.

Director Roger Donaldson keeps the film’s story charging by at an expert pace with the action talking place firmly in recent current events. There’s no outlandish “spy-tech from Q branch” on display. Home office operatives use satellite cell phone tracking in addition to those tricky  ominous hovering drones so much in the news. Plus he goes out of the way to present those agents as real flesh-and-blood people whose muscles ache and foreheads sweat as they hurriedly put together a plan, often utilizing whatever objects are at hand. The use of European locations are first-rate (I especially love the Belgrade commuter train that resembles a gleaming red rocket). He’s not Bond or Bourne, but THE NOVEMBER MAN is a tense, taut little thriller that will ease viewers out of the big action blockbusters and into the more somber Fall film fare. Brosnan proves he’s having quite the movie life past his four stints as “Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”.

3.5 Out of 5