Rating- * * * * (4/5)
It’s always tough to give a rating to a film that you don’t quite understand. It’s not that The Tailor of Panama touches on some great truth of life that my little brain can’t comprehend; in fact, I understood this film much less than the abstract, intangible masterpieces like 2001 or 8½ which offer far less in the way of plot and characters. It’s just that the storyline is so darn complicated and the way in which it is told so disjointed, that I fear I may have lost something along the way. The story involves an immoral British spy, played rather ironically by Pierce Brosnan, who is sent to Panama as a reprimand for his transgressions. He is charged with keeping tabs on the recently relinquished and very valuable Panama Canal and making sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. He recruits a happily married British tailor, played by Geoffrey Rush, to be his eyes and ears into the underground workings of the power brokers of Panama in exchange for not revealing to the tailor’s wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, that the tailor is not really a Saville Row businessman but a former convict who learned his trade while in prison. The tailor provides some information mixed in with some wildly exaggerated lies about a conspiracy to sell the canal to China that drives Brosnan wild for more and earns a good deal of cold hard cash for the financially troubled tailor. In the meantime, there is a whole other storyline involving the tailor getting involved in a silent opposition movement against the Panamanian government but I won’t go into it. As you can see the story is pretty complicated and the random dream sequences thrown in don’t ease the confusion much. It is certainly more stylish and better constructed than most action/espionage films and it does take an unconventional look at the immoral side of intelligence gathering which is rather interesting. The acting is also typically great from its wonderful cast and the dialogue is very original and quotable. In all this is a pretty good film, I just wish I had understood it a little better. If you are a fan of spy films or just of intriguing characters and their constantly changing allegiances than you will definitely like this film. Just make sure that you are wide awake when you watch.