Rent Our Kind of Traitor (2016)

An interesting spy thriller that does not quite cut it - Our Kind of Traitor review by PJ

This good feature film focuses on the Russian mafia. It is quite well made and everything should work to make it really good but, somehow, it fails to hit the mark. It is hard to know why. All the ingredients are there but it is not as good as it could be. And yet the plot is strong.

One reviewer said it feels more like 'a TV film', and that's perhaps what it is. Of all the characters, the only one that really grabs one's attention is Dima (Stellan Skarsgård), the Russian mobster who fears for his life. The violence is often suggested rather than shown, which could have worked but seems, somehow, to deprive the film of those moments of high drama one would expect.

Somehow, it is quite a cerebral film.

So, it is worth seeing, but could just as well be missed.

Watchable but oddly limp, plodding film with stellar cast - Our Kind of Traitor review by PV

This film should be better - a great writer (John le Carre) and a superb cast. However, something doesn't quite gel and I never felt really connected to the characters or cared about them. Maybe it's the direction? Not sure.

Anyway, the story strains credibility on several occasions - we're expected to believe that violent Russian gangsters can overnight turn into good caring fluffy bunny types. We're also expected to believe the Ewan McGregor character (a university poetry lecturer) would be married to a high-flying black lawyer. Sorry, but that's so unlikely and to affect my willing suspension of disbelief (essentially when watching any fictitious drama). I am sure John le Carre did not write it like that.

So, all in all, this is an oddly limp affair. My reaction to it is 'meh'.

And the Russian mafia are a lot nastier and less slick than portrayed, though there is much truth in the way they clean money in the City of London.

2 stars.

Lame-ish Spy Thriller - Our Kind of Traitor review by MD

Yet another film based on a John Le Carre novel, this boasts an impressive cast, yet strangely that combination just does not work on this occasion. Early on, you get the feeling that the set-up is highly contrived, and certainly the way in which a very ordinary university professor is sucked in to the murky world of espionage, mafia money laundering and government level skullduggery is pretty hard to believe.

The middle part was a muddled mix of clues, laboured exposition and gory action scenes that left me not just a little confused but also wanting more coherence - there was no real continuity, and the actors seemed at times to be as lost as I was.

Unfortunately, you could see the ending coming a mile off, but as always these days there was in fact a double ending, you know, the happy bit to offset the fact that everything went belly up first time round. I actually hated this ending: not only was it a cop out, but it was so briefly done that you were left hanging in the air. It kind of summed up the whole movie - badly handled, and inept.

All in all, I'm afraid, a bit of a waste of a potentially good story and a great cast.