Directed by Susanna White (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang; Bleak House (TV Mini-Series); Jane Eyre (TV Mini-Series)) and starring Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Star Wars: Episodes I-3; The Impossible), Damian Lewis (The Silent Storm; The Escapist; Alex Rider: Stormbreaker; The Forsyte Saga (TV Mini-Series)), Stellan Skarsgård (Good Will Hunting; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; In Order of Disappearance; Hector and the Search for Happiness) and Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Spectre; Skyfall; Southpaw).
Thriller, 107 mins, in English, 12+
While on a romantic week-end in Morocco with his wife Gail Perkins (Naomie Harris) who is also working there, university lecturer Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor) meets Dima (Stellan Skarsgård), a Russian, in a restaurant and is invited back to his house for a party to which he tags along reluctantly. When alone, Dima asks Perry to hand over a USB stick to MI6 as soon as he is back in London. Perry then meets Hector (Damian Lewis) who realises the significance of the information.
Hector does not have the support of his superiors to close in on the Russian mob and their money-laundering operation, but seizes the chance of their opening a new bank in London to try to get further details from Dima that could bring down a British cabinet minister and expose the truth. However, he needs the help of Perry and Gail if they are to have any chance at all of succeeding, with dima wanting to defect with his family.
A gritty and taught thriller based on a recent John le Carré novel with a cold-war / James Bond-esque edge to it, with the setting flitting between Marrakesh, Morocco, Paris and Switzerland, including the Alps. As the lead character, Ewan McGregor's Perry Makepeace comes across as slightly naive and someone who is normally a creature of habit, trying to please everyone all of the time. He wants to do the right thing and helps the man he has just met. However, when the tough gets going and he is sucked into the mess, he comes up trumps and is prepared to step outside his comfort zone.
