Product: Tailor of Panama [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 5.0
A wickedly sly rich brew of a film
I could see why the film wouldn't appeal to everyone since it is as the Director/ Producer John Boorman described a rather "rich brew". It is at once and in turn is a spy thriller, a black comedy, realistic, fantastical, languid, frenetic, a tragedy and a farce. It's a difficult mixture to balance. Evidently for some it didn't work, but for me it did in spades.Geoffrey Rush is very fine indeed as the Harry Pendel the Tailor who's a dreamer that likes to tailor the truth to make life more beautiful as well as easier. He's at once a good man and a weak man, a poet and a buffoon, and even as his lies are fueled by greed, fear and a need to feel important, they are also fueled by friendship and the overwhelming desire to spin a good yarn and to please (even those he doesn't like). The character is also the vortex for all those above mentioned competing strands. It's a marvelously textured performance.If Harry is the vortex then Brosnan's Osnard is the catalyst, and what a magnificent one he is. He is as advertised a complete and total cad! A machiavellian rotter without conscience or shame (and language to make a sailor blush). He's also a heat seeking missile for information, money and sex... and not necessarily in that order. One reviewer described him as a cobra. It's a perfect description. He's seemingly languid, and it's not just the effortless charm, the devil may care grins but the relaxed body posture, the loose and ill-fitting clothes, the way he flops himself onto couches, hammocks, beds etc. Yet he emanates danger: see how he's always watching, sizing up people for soft spots and weaknesses, always probing for something that will benefit him whether it be information, money or sex (and as I said not always in that order); see the flashes of contempt that wash over his face, his lack of human compassion, and the palpable nastiness when he's about to be thwarted.He is at once repellent and oh so attractive. Bad has never been so beautiful or so appealing. His pursuit and conquest of the embassy aide Francesca (the cooly delicious Catherine McCormack) is of the heat seeking missile variety, emphasis on the heat... it's determined and confident (watch his sublime incredulous reaction when he says "Is that a No?"... as if a no is out of the realm of possibility) while being seemingly effortless, seductive but raw... all sex no romance. She proclaims him the wickedest man she's ever met, and he rightly replies "isn't that the attraction".Osnard doesn't just confine his seductions to Fran, in his own way he's seducing Harry. The pinnacle of which is the uproarious gay dance club scene which really has to be seen to be believed or appreciated. It alone is worth the price of admission. Brosnan manages to be outrageously playful, mock-seductive, and menacing all in the blink of an eye. And Rush's flustered reactions just feed him. I can't even begin to do justice to the meeting with Harry in the brothel as Osnard pumps Harry for info, watches porn, and bounces on the bed after inserting coins for the magic fingers! (oh, small trivia, these scenes were shot in an actual brothel with actual prostitutes. A cousin of someone who worked on the film owned it.) They really work marvelously together. It's one of the great screen relationships in recent (and not so recent) memory.Those going in expecting the romantic or smooth moves of Bond or Thomas Crown will be severely dissapointed. But those open and eager to see Brosnan immersed in playing "the devil" (as Marta calls him) will be delighted. It's evident that Brosnan is having a grand time playing the role and he's a joy to watch in it. Some have described Brosnan's performance as a parody of Bond, but that's doing it an injustice. Osnard isn't just a riff on Bond, he's a unique and distinct creation that Brosnan fully inhabits without ever winking at the audience. He may use audience expectations of his usual good guy roles but that's only to make Osnard's edge sharper and more shocking and not to blunt it's edge.If it seems I've discussed character more than plot and that's because I think the two main characters are the film's strongest point. The others including Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), Francesca (McCormack), Marta (Lenor Varela), Mickie (Brenden Gleason) while interesting exist more to show the facets of the main characters, or as additional threads in a complex web, more than as fully realized stand alone characters. But all of their acting is top-notch as well. It's difficult to discuss the plot without revealing too many plots points, but the plot itself is a rather complex and twisty one where seemingly minor events and characters, farcical and dramatic begin to feed together until the film builds up quite a head of steam. The denouement worked for me even if it did leave quite a few threads dangling and was rather abrupt. There just seemed to be a transition scene missing near the end. Boorman re-shot the ending at a late date and that may be the problem, but I think he was right to do so because the original ending just didn't fit the characters as they played/evolved in the film. The revised ending is more appropriate to the playful dark cynicism of the film.Lastly, if it's an action or straight comedy film you're looking for this isn't it. If it's a richly textured character driven film with dark undertones, and dialogue redolent with a sharp biting wit that rarely is heard in film today, beautifully measured performances, quirky direction, with lush and interesting cinematography showing Panama from inside the actual Presidential Palace to it's brothels to it's canal, then it's a movie you just might enjoy as much as I did.