All the Old Knives is a genre movie trading on the John LeCarre-like tropes of intrigue and betrayal but with more of the latter and less the former. CIA agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) investigates the the successful hijacking of a Turkish airliner in a Vienna airport by jihad terrorists in 2012 with over a hundred people murdered-- suggesting a mole within the CIA ranks.
The pace is deliberate, slow if you will, allowing director Janus Metz and writer Olen Steinhauer (from his book) to linger on protagonist Henry and his former love, Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), a retired agent who worked for the agency at the time of the hijacking. The film dwells on their intimate conversation and lovemaking with closeups too many even for me, who usually gains insights from such intimacy.
The emphasis leaves too little time to be caught up ordinarily in plot twists and distracting clues. Even the least sophisticated viewer will not miss Jonathan Price's Bill Compton as a possible red herring for the mole-the conventions of this genre don't allow an obvious suspect that early in the game.
The plot, then, misses the richness of spy mechanics and twists that point everywhere and nowhere-always an anarchic joy keeping cinephiles engaged.
When the plot devolves into Henry and Celia at a Carmel restaurant by the sea with free-range bacon and only wine, their intimate conversation struggles about who is the culprit and whether the two still love each other. It exhausts with their mooning, her cliche-required tears, and their lovemaking, which is gratuitous.
However, the virtue of this approach is to allow the film's theatrical quality to emerge and treat theatre lovers to tight dialogue and pent-up passion. However, if emphasis had been placed on deconstructing the possible perps, the mystery would have crackled. Other engaging characters are plentiful in All the Old Knives but not used.
Although that Carmel restaurant is as glamorous as the leads (even if constructed on a sound stage in the UK), it occupies almost half the film, loading us with flashbacks and incompetent waiters, none of which is fleshed out enough to be suspicious. Rest assured that ends are tied up and spy justice administered with a twist on honor to get your attention.
Betrayal is the name of the game and has always been for the spy agencies and their operatives. Here not only does the mole betray his country, but our two heroes also have a history. For those related to agents, betrayal is an everyday game of what the agent really does.
For the audience, a certain amount of action while still offering potent dialogue is welcomed in spy stories, some of that in All the Old Knives. But don't ask me about that title: It's as inscrutable as the story is much of the time.
I'm happy for the challenge at this low season for movies after Oscar.
