All the Old Knives

A small-scale, ale Carré-esque spy thriller that both moves and grips. Centering around a meal shared between Thandiwe Newton and Chris Pine, former lovers and espionage colleagues, it uses flashbacks deftly to tell its story, and convincingly portray the way former partners share remembered intimacies and conflicting agendas. The story itself unfolds layer by layer, and the economic run time is refreshing. There are just enough hints to the truth to make you think you know what's going on, but not enough to spoil the final act revelations. It's deftly played, emotionally truthful and gripping right to the end, with Newton especially impressive with her layered performance.

Definitely a 7 or more. Right now showing a 6 is very underated. Great acting by both Newton and Pine. Keeps you interested throughout. I'd recommend for sure.

Don't come into this expecting nonstop action and thrills. What we have here is a ponderous, character-driven Cold War style espionage film that takes it time telling its intriguing story and has a satisfying payoff.

I was happy that some of the twists have much more depth than at initial glance and feel more natural than a lot of shock value storytelling. Pine and Newton do most of the heavy lifting and fit their roles well. Pine gives off some serious elder Brosnan vibes here and I'm here for it. The story ends up being quite heartfelt and bypasses most of the cliches that plague the genre.

The people complaining about how confusing it is clearly did not pay attention because every prior moment of intrigue is explained by the end.

This spy thriller is more about spy-relationships with hardly any thrills. It's a very slow burn, and I can see how many would become impatient. I'm also not a fan of timeline back and forths, and this has many, and more than just two timelines. However, although not perfect, the timelines are what kept me intrigued to continue to watch, as they revealed small pieces of the puzzle throughout. The reward at the end is worth it imo, I just wish the felt-longer 101 min runtime with slow pacing had been shorter and faster. Huge credit goes to Pine and Newton for their exceptional performances, and another reason why I didn't throw in the towel mid-way, plus adding Fishburne and Pryce into the mix was a bonus. So if you don't go into this expecting a James Bond action spy thriller, and have the patience, you may enjoy it once it reaches the end. All the Old Knives had sharp performances, but the story-telling was dull and needed much sharpening. It's a 7.5 rounded up to an 8/10 from me.

The movie has all the good accessories: sleek production, atmospheric mise-en-scene, glossy photography, powerful soundtrack.

But it's the excellent screenplay (from author Olen Steinhauer) and acting performances that make All The Old Knives a high quality espionage thriller, one made of the good old stuff.

For once the genre is not represented in movies by the usual kiss-kiss bang-bang, car chases, fistfights and the whole James Bond enchilada. This is espionage for connoisseurs.