A Most Wanted Man 2014

Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Inquirer: Hoffman's an actor who could do just about anything, but being authentically German is not one of them. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: More than 100 minutes into "A Most Wanted Man," a CIA officer asks, "What are we trying to achieve here?" Viewers can be forgiven for replying, "If you don't know, why should we?" Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Densely plotted, with everyone spying on everybody else, the movie is fraught with labyrinthine details more complicated than Egyptian hieroglyphics. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: I wish I could say that the film gives a great actor a worthy role, but the truth is otherwise. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A movie that tries to cover many facets of the post-9/11 period, though it doesn't quite make up for the fact that a great cast is sometimes wasted. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a German intelligence operative in Anton Corbijn's steadily absorbing John le Carre adaptation. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Corbijn handles this surfeit of plot with ease, skillfully preserving the mystery of Issa's motives and creating an atmosphere of pervasive distrust. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Smart and filled with twists, as you might expect, if a little on the slow side. (OK, a lot on the slow side.) Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The great pleasure of le Carre-land - for some, it's the frustration - is that one's own moral certainties are quickly stood on their head. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This adaptation of a John le Carre novel works smashingly as a suspense film, a mood piece, and a vehicle for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The movie is good, solid le Carre. It's chilly yet humane, and human-scaled ... Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Hoffman, bloated and flushed, does not look well in this film. But he is such a consummate actor that whatever infirmities he may have been fighting become a part of his performance. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A rather sad movie about the potential futility of doing good, or at least taking the difficult path, in a complicated world. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: With his sharp instincts and exhausted wisdom, the character of Gunther offers us a bittersweet reminder of Hoffman's gifts in what is his last completed film. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Hoffman brings a balance of fierce obsession and weary resignation to the role, and ends on a howling note that's so deeply human it brings shivers. Read more

Jeff Labrecque, Entertainment Weekly: Crackles with a jigsaw-puzzle intelligence and features a superbly subtle lead performance from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who single-handedly gooses the post-9/11 procedural through some of its slower patches. Read more

Kate Erbland, Film.com: As ever, le Carre subverts the spy genre in a major way. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: This admirably textured thriller rooted in Eastern immigrant-laden Hamburg will prove absorbing to attentive audiences internationally who don't need everything spelled out to them ... Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: [A] crackerjack thriller, at once brooding, claustrophobic and unbearably tense ... Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A Most Wanted Man has a veracity most spy thrillers lack, and the suspense is of the intellectual, not visceral, kind. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: The puzzle-like premise of A Most Wanted Man is a fabrication, but you cannot escape the fascination of Hoffman waiting for despair to be confirmed. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The cat-and-mouse games, while entertaining, feel familiar. What elevates the movie is Hoffman's performance as a man pouring his soul into the only work he knows. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It was shot in dark, lurid, vital Hamburg; Hoffman is the star; and I was completely held. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The story unfolds slowly, with the filmmaker's own fascination with process at center stage. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: A Most Wanted Man retains a cogent narrative and le Carre's weary outlook. Rather than choke the narrative with details, the filmmakers keep the story lean while adding evocative visual and aural details. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: To some, Corbijn's movie will feel moody and complex. But anyone looking for fizz or flash will spend most of the movie engaged in a hearty game of Watch Check. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A smart, bluntly effective adaptation of John le Carre's post-9/11 political passion play about good, evil and the sins committed in the name of national security. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: [Hoffman] scales his performance to Olympian heights, yet he elevates all his collaborators, too. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: To spy, to lie, to seduce, to deceive, to try to do right, to destroy - that is the current that runs under everything in le Carre's fiction, and it courses through Hoffman's veins as Bachmann in A Most Wanted Man. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "One of the best spy thrillers in recent years." Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The last full-scale Hoffman performance - and it's a master class in acting - comes in A Most Wanted Man, Anton Corbijn's tense, twisty and terrific spy thriller, based on John le Carre's 2008 novel. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Who will make these arrests and when? It's hard to develop an intense involvement around the question, and heading toward the who-cares resolution are lots of scenes paced with maddening slowness. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: One of the countless sad things about losing Hoffman is the realization that we'll never get to watch him single-handedly elevate an otherwise OK movie again. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "A Most Wanted Man" is not a guns-and-motorcycles spy story but a shadowy walk down a dark alley. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A Most Wanted Man" is the rare film that will remain on your mind long after you've left the theater. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: It's hard not to want A Most Wanted Man to go on forever, if only to spend time in the company of Hoffman - one of the great actors of his, or any, generation. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Hoffman leaves us with a quality film that showcases his tremendous depth and range as an actor. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Most Wanted can often be a chilly bit of business, but it's no less gripping for its emotional distance, thanks mostly to a superb cast led by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Given the deadly stakes, this should be gripping, but the film gets sucked into academic plot details, trudging through each rendezvous and stakeout. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Anchored by Hoffman's superlative performance, the story, based on a John le Carre novel, is low-key, brooding and engrossing. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: By the end, Corbijn and screenwriter Andrew Bovell have laid bare all of these unknowable men. The answers satisfy - sometimes they're even heartening. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A Most Wanted Man doesn't snap into focus until the last 15 of its 121 minutes. But until then, director Anton Corbijn serves up plenty of good, foggy, rainy ambiguity. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Hoffman shines in a role that demands not showmanship, but a kind of complexity and contradiction that can be rendered only through the kind of dull character details that he excelled in, accumulating them from the inside out. Read more