The November Man

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Movie
German title The November Man
Original title The November Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2014
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roger Donaldson
script Michael Finch
Karl Gajdusek
production Beau St. Clair
Sriram Das
music Marco Beltrami
camera Romain Lacourbas
cut John Gilbert
occupation

The November Man ( German  Der Novembermann ) is an American espionage thriller from 2014 . It is based on the novel There Are No Spies (published in German as Der November-Mann ) by Bill Granger . The US theatrical release took place on August 28, 2014.

action

The former agent Peter Devereaux, whose code name is "November Man", lives in Switzerland in retirement. One day his former boss, Hanley, shows up and asks him to help unmask a mole inside the CIA . He is supposed to fly to Moscow and evacuate his ex-wife Natalia there, who was smuggled there as an agent and who, as the lover of the Russian General Fedorov, obtained sensitive information. During the evacuation, Natalia only gives the name Mira Filipova and is then shot by Devereaux's former student David Mason on the orders of CIA chief Weinstein. Devereaux escapes the CIA killers and flees to Belgrade , where he meets Alice Fournier, who is researching Fedorov's role in the Second Chechen War . She reports that Mira Filipova was a witness to Fedorov's war crimes and could also testify that he helped the CIA to blow up a Russian skyscraper and thus triggered the second Chechnya war. Devereaux and Fournier narrowly escape the professional killer Alexa, who was set on Fournier.

Hanley is meanwhile arrested and interrogated by Weinstein. Devereaux enters the container in which he is being held. He reports that Alice Fournier is actually the Mira Filipova he is looking for. Years earlier, Fedorov had her parents murdered and held them prisoner for years.

Filipova breaks into the hotel in which Fedorov resides disguised as a high-class prostitute and tries to kill him with a shard of a mirror, but does not bring it to an end. She is saved by Devereaux at the last minute. He forces Fedorov to confess about the bombing and learns that Hanley was the one responsible. They escape, with Devereaux having a shootout with Mason, in which some CIA men die and Mason is captured by Devereaux. However, he releases him again with the request to look at the Russian's confession. Mason wants to report to Weinstein, but he has since been replaced by Hanley, who blackmailed Fedorov with his crimes and wants to use him as a CIA puppet.

Hanley kidnaps Devereaux's daughter Lucy as leverage to get Mira Filipova. However, the daughter is freed by Mason, and together Devereaux and Mason arrest Hanley. Filipova is now appearing in a criminal court as a witness against Hanley and Fedorov.

In the end, Fedorov is shot dead by an unknown sniper on a motor yacht.

background

The screenplay for The November Man was written by Michael Finch ( Predators ) and Karl Gajdusek ( Oblivion ) , based on a novel by Bill Granger. In the US, the espionage thriller started on August 27, 2014 and earned twice its production costs by November. In Germany, the film was shown between August 27 and September 21, 2014 as part of the Fantasy Film Festival in various German cities. Even before the theatrical release, filmstarts.de reported in August 2014 that Relativity Media was planning a sequel and wanted to start filming in the same year. In July 2015, however, the film studio had to file for bankruptcy.

criticism

Overall, the criticism was rather negative. On Rotten Tomatoes , 34% said they were positive (114 reviews were evaluated). For the film magazine Cinema , the film is "an entertaining agent thriller that is not in the same league as Jason Bourne and James Bond , but [but] has a Pierce Brosnan in top form."

Even the filmdienst draws a positive balance: "Pierce Brosnan makes [...] a strong figure. With eloquence and skill he still confidently presents his action hero skills and gives his former student, who has switched sides, lessons in matters of effective and correct agent work in the arguments - Dramaturgy of only known genre patterns ”.

According to Eric Henderson, Editor of Slant Magazine , Donaldson “unnecessarily filled the already overloaded scenario of 'The November Man' with hollow genre redundancies”. "Not even Pierce [Brosnan] can save anything" from that. It awards 1½ out of 4 possible stars.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The November Man . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2014 (PDF; test number: 148 295 V).
  2. ↑ A November Man. Rotten Tomatoes, August 10, 2014, accessed August 21, 2014 .
  3. ↑ "The November Man": Pierce Brosnan meets his student Luke Bracey in the first trailer for the action thriller. Filmstarts.de , July 24, 2014, accessed on August 17, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Box Office Mojo (English)
  5. ↑ Jakub Westfal: “The November Man”: Planned continuation of the agent thriller with Pierce Brosnan. Filmstarts.de, August 20, 2014, accessed on August 21, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Ralf Augsburg: Relativity Media apply for insolvency ... studio. Retrieved April 13, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The November Man on DVD . In: Cinema . Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ film-dienst , No. 05/2015, p. 53, Alexander Hertel
  9. ↑ Eric Henderson: The November Man . In: Slant Magazine . Retrieved March 8, 2014.