THE ALCHEMIST ABOUT TOWN

Bits and bobs

Bank Holiday Monday at the movies:  Our Kind of Traitor  

Pic from www.radiotimes.com

- from a novel by John Le Carre

John Le Carré is the master of spy fiction who has produced in the last few decades countless tense, must-read spy novels who then converted into even more must-see movies.

In this adaptation of Our Kind of Traitor, Le Carré 22nd novel, the two main characters are Perry Makepiece and Gail Perkins, an innocent couple dragged into the world of crime and the security services. 

Directed by Susanna White, Our Kind of Traitor, like the novel, deals with the themes of loyalty, trust, and allegiance. In many ways Our Kind of Traitor feels like the sort of movie that simply doesn’t get made anymore
Perry is a conscience-ridden leftist, who teaches English at Oxford; Gail, his wife, is a rising young barrister. As the plot begins to unfold, they find themselves caught between the Russian mafia and the British Secret Service, unable to figure out which of these organizations is looking out for them, and which is out to get them.

Espionage movies that look this good have become increasingly difficult to come by in recent years. In this move tension is generated by mystery in favour of straightforward, super action scenes. You can never fully get comfortable.

I will not go into much details in case you have not read the book; Our Kind of Traitor is not the best of Le Carré' s novels, in my opinion, and neither one of my favourites and but I feel the movie  improves upon it.

One to see.