Product: Tailor of Panama [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 3.0
A Stitch in Time...
Based on the John LeCarre novel, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA is a quick sprint through the essentials of that rather slow-moving book.Geoffrey Rush plays The Tailor of Panama AKA Harry Pendel, bespoke haberdasher to the power elite of that small but crucial Central American country. Harry has some deep, dark secrets of his own, but he has built himself into a seemingly successful businessman.Pierce Brosnan plays British spy Andy Osnard, who recruits Harry as a "source" regarding Panamanian politics. Harry's customers all seem to confide state secrets in their tailor, and what they don't confide, Harry invents out of whole cloth, as it were.Harry's imaginative embellishments of slight truths fuel Osnard's ambitions (both positive and negative), and ultimately lead to a major international incident, based on Harry's tall tales and Osnard's scheming.Although everyone from the President of the United States on down to Harry's shopgirl suspects the whole "Panama problem" doesn't really exist, nobody wants to be the one who backs down and risks 'losing' Panama.Rush is likeable as Harry, a nebbish of a man who just wants to seem important to somebody, anybody. He's a storyteller whose inventive fibbing turns deep black courtesy of Osnard, a pathological liar.Jaime Lee Curtis is miscast as Pendel's wife, Louisa. Curtis behaves far too intelligently to be taken in by either Pendel or Osnard, yet Louisa only catches on to the truth at the end. And amazingly forgives Harry, although he is primarily responsible for a major superpower crisis.Pierce Brosnan is excellent as the amoral and underhanded Osnard. A washed up civil servant with selfish motives, Osnard is an inverted James Bond. His superiors are all embittered at being assigned to Panama, a backwater posting in the American sphere of influence. This motivates them to keep the tall tales growing. The fact that Osnard is successful at his spy games is no reassurance. "The truth will out"? Not in Panama, apparently.The atmosphere of the movie is reminiscent of 1940s-era productions like NOW, VOYAGER, spiced with ironic humor and dark wit. As Pendel says to Osnard at one point, tipping his hat to Bogart, "Welcome to Panama! Casablanca without heroes!" which is the best one line description of this movie anywhere.This film is neither great nor particularly memorable, but it's a fun couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon before the Director yells "Cut!" Or was that my tailor? Hmmmmmm...