{"id":711,"date":"2017-05-06T07:27:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsour-kind-of-traitor-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T07:27:42","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:42","slug":"httptheblurb-com-aureviewsour-kind-of-traitor-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsour-kind-of-traitor-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Kind of Traitor – movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rich and rewarding spy thriller featuring an all-star cast, Our Kind of Traitor<\/em> focuses on the Russian mafia and money laundering in the UK.<\/p>\n

A British university lecturer, Perry (Ewan McGregor), and his lawyer wife, Gail (Naomie Harris), are having their issues after being married for a decade or more. They take a break to Marrakech to try to reconnect and that is where McGregor is befriended by a flamboyant, gregarious and charismatic Russian, Dima (Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd). Dima invites Perry to lavish parties and to play tennis. Unbeknown to Perry though, Dima is a kingpin in a Russian money laundering operation who wants to defect with his family to the UK. Before Perry and Gail leave Morocco to head home, Dima prevails upon his new mate to deliver some classified material to MI6 via a USB drive.<\/p>\n

\"Our-Kind-of-Traitor-01\"Naively, Perry agrees and before you know it he and Gail become ensnared in a dangerous world of international espionage, dirty politics and murder. The man pulling the strings is Hector (Damian Lewis), a determined but poorly resourced MI6 agent with his own axe to grind. Perry and Gail\u2019s perilous journey takes them through Paris and Bern to the French Alps. At stake are not only billions of dollars, but the safety of Dima\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Our Kind of Traitor<\/i> is based upon a novel by spy writer extraordinaire John le Carr\u00e9 (the mind behind Tinker Tailor Solider Spy<\/i>) and has been written for the screen by Hossein Amini (The Two Faces of January<\/i><\/a>). Amini worked closely with le Carr\u00e9 on the first couple of drafts. \u201cI would write and he\u2019d give me notes,\u201d says Amini of their collaboration. \u201cOne of the themes of le Carr\u00e9\u2019s work is that Britain has almost declined as a world power, but we still have these British values that come from a time when Britain was on top of the world and had a moral responsibility,\u201d Amini says. \u201cAs that power has waned, that morality has turned into something far more like compromise. He is very interested in the impact of the decline of British power on a moral system. That\u2019s what our film is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is directed by two-time Emmy nominee Susanna White (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Damian Lewis is right when he says this is as much a character piece as it is a suspenseful thriller. \u201cIt\u2019s not a \u2018who done it\u2019, it\u2019s more of a \u2018can they do it?\u2019\u201d he suggests Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s characters have long been engrained in the public imagination as the crumpled, cynical counterparts to the polished dash of James Bond. For the filmmakers, the job at hand was to craft a feature to fit into the le Carr\u00e9 canon and also to stand out within it.<\/p>\n