‘The November Man’ Review by Jorge Carreón. It seems every mature actor who can throw a punch is determined to offer up his own take on the “Taken” formula. But, the interesting thing is just how well suited these revenge thrillers fit actors like Neeson, Kevin Costner (“3 Days to Kill”) and now Pierce Brosnan. The cool twist with Brosnan as “The November Man” is his bold move to leave the gentleman hero of Bond behind to take on another literary icon, Bill Granger’s Peter Devereaux. Brosnan seems inspired by the darker moral shades of a man who also possesses a license to kill. But in this post-“Bourne” world, it isn’t enough to throw a punch or blow up a city block. The action must have a dramatic context for you to care about the retribution on screen. And for all its visceral strengths as an actioner, “The November Man” never gets under your skin to be truly effective. Journalist-turned-author Granger had a knack for crafting espionage thrillers that found success tapping into the paranoia of Reagan-era politics. This adaptation of his “There Are No Spies” into “The November Man” plays like an awkward Cliff’s Notes version of geopolitical intrigue. Worse, with Hollywood now desperate to court Russian dollars, the broad Russian and Eastern European stereotypes that populate the film all feel grossly cynical. Watching the film, I couldn’t help but wonder what would Tom Clancy say about how “The November Man” tries to play it both ways by illustrating that rogue arrogance also exists in American patriotism gone wrong within the CIA? But, no sooner than I asked myself that question, I realized the increasingly convoluted plot and escalating violence of the interminable set pieces would render any answers useless. If the film just stayed with being a classic game of American/Russian cat and mouse, audiences would be have been treated to a taut adult thriller to close out the summer movie season. Instead, you have to wade through this whole father-son dynamic of Brosnan with co-star Luke Bracey, which is more of a youth vs. age macho standoff than a psychological wrinkle. And, forget about the dash of liberal guilt by having a B-plot comprised of female characters with secrets, from the double agent lover to the social worker marked for death by being at the wrong place at the wrong time (red herring alert). Plenty of targets appear on screen, but “The November Man” works too hard in wanting to hit every demographic quadrant. Still, credit director Roger Donaldson from keeping the action moving at such a breakneck speed, you may not notice that the plot is spinning out of control. It also doesn’t help that some of the cast aren’t able to rise above the screenplay’s weaknesses. They sure look the part, as in the case of Olga Kurylenko, who is a good candidate to play one of Luc Besson’s kamikaze women. But her role as the social worker feels like a plot device in search of a plot. The handsome Bracey fares worse because he is clearly outmatched by the formidable Brosnan, both as a man of action and in terms of expressing emotional depth. Despite the film’s weaknesses, should you invest in the intrigue of “The November Man,” you won’t be disappointed by Brosnan’s performance. As dark and ugly the scenarios that swirl around him become, Brosnan offers a sturdy sense of reality to balance them all. You want to champion this man in the same way audiences have cheered Neeson’s “father on a mission” bravado in “Taken.” Unfortunately, the exploitative rewards of that black and white world are not present here. Proceed with your date with “The November Man” at your own risk. “The November Man” is now playing nationwide.
