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The November Man: Brosnan Stars in Nostalgic Spy Thriller
By Sandra Olmsted
Director Roger Donaldson’s The November Man closely follows the formula cold-war-era spy thriller, which will be new to younger audiences and familiar to older ones.
Coaxed out of retirement by his old boss, Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) (a.k.a. The November Man) embarks on a mission to rescue Natalia (Mediha Musliovic), a CIA agent undercover and working for Russian politician Federov (Lazar Ristovski), who has a secret in his past that she has uncovered. Whoever controls the secret controls Federov, likely the next president of Russia, and the CIA wants that control.
Unfortunately, the CIA also wants Natalia, and soon Devereaux, dead and assigns Devereaux’s former protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey) to take out both of them.
Meanwhile, controlling the secret and thereby Federov requires finding a Chechen girl who ten years ago witnessed an exchange between Federov and a CIA agent which resulted in the Second Chechen War.
Alice (Olga Kurylenko), a Serbian social worker, is the only link to the missing witness, and Devereaux grabs Alice in order to both save her from the CIA and to find the witness.
Meanwhile, Mason, whom Devereaux told to never have personal relationships, must kill Devereaux and, in the process, discovers that Devereaux has a secret of his own. While the CIA agents interrogate Hanley, Mason and Devereaux play an exciting game of cat-and-mouse. Other secrets and lies reveal double crosses and betrayals.
For the most part a good old fashion spy thriller, The November Man offers a complex plot with several surprises. When the witness doesn’t take the opportunity to shoot Federov, who murdered her family, kidnapped, and raped and abused her for two years, it appalls, but, in the end, she finds another way to get even.
The script uses new technologies in interesting ways, which adds to the excitement. The film, however, drags at times because of a repetitious score and too many shots that linger on mundane, pointless images in needless attempts to create suspense, which the film already has.
On the upside, Pierce Brosnan remains handsome, debonair, and easy on the eyes, and as a friend’s mother once said of Sean Connery, many will want to invite Brosnan to put his shoes under their bed.
The November Man, a Relativity Media release, opens in theaters Aug. 27. The November Man is rated R for strong violence including a sexual assault, language, sexuality/nudity and brief drug use and runs 108 minutes.
