“ALL THE OLD KNIVES” My rating: C+ (Amazon Prime)
101 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Give the makers of “All the Old Knives” props for delivering a cerebral spy yarn, one free of gunfire, car chases, explosions and the usual trappings of the post-Bond espionage thriller.
There’s more John LeCarre than Michael Bay on display in director Janus Metz’s yarn. Nice change of pace.
Still, it’s a bit underwhelming.
Unfolding simultaneously in several time frames, Olen Steinhauer’s screenplay (based on his novel) begins with the highjacking of a commercial jet liner in Europe. The terrorists are holding hostage a hundred or so passengers and crew on a runway of Vienna’s international airport.
Spooks at Vienna’s CIA station monitor the situation. They include station chief Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne), second-in-command Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce) and agents Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison(Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton), who are not only co-workers but lovers.
Eight years after that incident ended tragically, Henry finds himself pulled back into the ugly past with an unwelcome assignment. It now appears that someone at the Vienna station was in cahoots with the highjackers; boss Vick thinks it was either Bill or Celia, both now retired from the game.
Henry’s first stop is in London to grill Bill; then it’s on to Big Sur country where Celia has married and started a family.
Much of the story is told in flashback as Henry and Celia share a dinner at a picturesque seaside restaurant. It’s a curious dance of nerves and insinuation. Ostensibly it’s just a meeting of old friends, but they (and we) know better …for one thing we discover that a fellow diner is in fact an agency hit man waiting for Henry’s nod to move in on Celia.
So it’s kinda tense. Henry and Celia both recognize that despite the friendly small talk with which the meal begins, the episode could end with arrest and imprisonment…if not termination with extreme prejudice.
And then there’s the issue of unrequited love…these two were never so alive as when in each other’s arms and working together on a mission.
Essentially this is a two-handed drama with brief digressions into the past. It’s a chance for Pine and Newton to flex their acting muscles without a lot of cinematic razzle dazzle.
And the plot delivers a satisfying last-minute “gotcha.”
Still, there’s something missing. We’re told that Henry and Celia were a hot item, but we don’t necessarily feel it. As a result “All the Old Knives” is more a knotty puzzle than a gripping cinema experience.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 