A Most Wanted Man
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: July 25, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 24, 2014
[A] crackerjack thriller, at once brooding, claustrophobic and unbearably tense. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 24, 2014
A Most Wanted Man works as a crowd-pleaser and as a believable reflection of how these fictional events might well play out in the real world. Read full review
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 24, 2014
Although the cast is uniformly fine, 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 full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 22, 2014
A Most Wanted Man is simply a complex tale superbly told, with time for nuance and to soak in its mysteries. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 25, 2014
A Most Wanted Man's cast - a mix of Germans speaking English, Americans speaking English with German accents, Russians, and men and women from the Middle East - is uniformly stellar. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJul 24, 2014
The rare film that will remain on your mind long after you’ve left the theater. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 24, 2014
The great pleasure of le Carré-land — for some, it’s the frustration — is that one’s own moral certainties are quickly stood on their head. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 24, 2014
Every move Hoffman makes subtly rivets attention. There's the uncanny German accent, the boozing, the chain-smoking, the glances at his assistant (Nina Hoss), the secret life he keeps hidden and the betrayals even Günther can't see coming. Hoffman is simply magnificent. Face it. We won't see his like again. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 23, 2014
Hoffman is merely the first among equals in a stellar cast. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 25, 2014
As usual in Le Carre's world (and the real one), a measured, rational approach faces an uphill battle against the philistines who really run the show. That predictably weary attitude is both the best — as embodied in Hoffman's performance — and worst — in its weary predictability — things about A Most Wanted Man. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 24, 2014
Corbijn keeps the intrigue uncluttered, guided by Andrew Bovell's economical adapted screenplay. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 23, 2014
A Most Wanted Man allows Hoffman to go out with not only one of his best performances, but one that epitomizes his strengths. Read full review
83
Film.comKate ErblandJan 20, 2014
While the final act might not surprise or stun, it does feature some classic le Carre movements, some trademark Corbijn ease, and a terrifying Hoffman bellowing at the sky – not so bad for just another spy film. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 24, 2014
Still, it's le Carre's material; it was shot in dark, lurid, vital Hamburg; Hoffman is the star; and I was completely held. [28 July 2014, p.79]
80
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 24, 2014
Hoffman doesn't get a lot of flashy, awards-show-clip moments, but he's all the more engrossing for underplaying and revealing volumes with the slightest of reactions and inflections. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 24, 2014
Mr. Hoffman’s performance is so finely etched — and the story so irresistible — that the film becomes, almost inescapably, something of a last testament. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangJan 22, 2014
Corbijn succeeds here in large part because his attention to nuance and detail so fully complements that of the German operatives at the story’s core. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 23, 2014
Forget divining who’s predator and who’s prey. Everybody’s chum here. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 25, 2014
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. His portrayal, complete with a convincing German accent, is a fully rounded portrait of courage and dissolution. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyJul 24, 2014
Like a book we want to keep reading, despite the compression of pages telling us the end is near, 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 full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 24, 2014
While the tension is sometimes muted, this is more than a procedural round of spy games. The deliberately paced but riveting film is made all the better because of Hoffman's breathtakingly nuanced portrayal. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 24, 2014
Like most of le Carré’s novel, A Most Wanted Man has a veracity most spy thrillers lack, and the suspense is of the intellectual, not visceral, kind. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 24, 2014
The events are complicated, though not complicated by cheap thrills or easy politics. It's a film of interest rather than throttling suspense. By the end, however, when Bachmann's future depends on a very simple nonviolent series of events, Corbijn's methodical approach pays off. And we care. We care about the protagonist's outcome. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 23, 2014
What resonates, in this smart but minor procedural, isn’t the harsh vision of a post-9/11 world, but the unglamorous depiction of governmental grunt work. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoJul 21, 2014
Anton Corbijn constructs a stifling world of shadowy surveillance and intersecting national interests, building on John Le Carré's sense of moral and emotional exhaustion. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJeff LabrecqueJul 16, 2014
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 full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 25, 2014
What’s on display here is a great actor at his absolute peak — damn it all. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 24, 2014
Hoffman was a genius, a tremendously gifted actor who could shine in almost any role... A Most Wanted Man may not be the best example of this, but it certainly adds to the evidence. Read full review
70
The DissolveNathan RabinJul 22, 2014
A Most Wanted Man is a cold film that examines its characters from a clinical distance, but its iciness gives way to raw emotion in a powerful final sequence. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 22, 2014
The story is a jigsaw puzzle in which all the pieces are of an indistinguishable gray, making fitting them together a tricky matter. Read full review
67
The PlaylistCory EverettJan 22, 2014
The problem isn’t quite that the film is short on thrills (there is a paucity; the first adrenaline racing sequences don’t arrive until about an hour in), it’s that it’s not quite a character piece either. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 25, 2014
Corbijn keeps the action of A Most Wanted Man at arms length or greater, never finding the heart of the piece despite mostly solid performances and strong production values. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonSep 9, 2014
It’s all unexpectedly uninvolving. Read full review
60
EmpireIan NathanSep 8, 2014
For all its chilled intelligence and topical ambition this is a bloodless adaptation, but worth seeing for Hoffman’s deft and ghostly presence. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 24, 2014
Whether you call Anton Corbijn’s adaptation of John le Carré’s 2008 novel “deliberately paced” or “so slow I can feel my hair growing,” there’s no denying the power behind the central performance. Read full review
60
CineVuePatrick GambleJul 24, 2014
An otherwise intelligent piece that favours deftness of touch over bombastic thrills, A Most Wanted Man is an efficient espionage drama that, whilst in no way revelatory, is attuned to its source material's non-heroic and morally ambiguous approach to a well-worn genre. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksJan 22, 2014
It's a professional old-school espionage outing, intricate as clockwork and acted with relish by the ever-watchable Hoffman. But it remains an oddly anonymous enterprise from this talented and distinctive director. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 24, 2014
Now, thanks to A Most Wanted Man, we discover that it's really boring - practically sleep-inducing - to be an international spy. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJul 23, 2014
This atmospheric, cool-looking but gimpy thriller based on a John le Carré novel makes “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” look like “22 Jump Street.” Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 23, 2014
Dreary, depressing and desultory, A Most Wanted Man is not my cup of Schokolade mit Schlagsahne. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 24, 2014
I wish I could say that the film gives a great actor a worthy role, but the truth is otherwise. The character is banal — Günther lavishes attention on remarkably uninteresting spycraft — and Mr. Hoffman, like everyone else, is stuck with the glum tone set by the director, Anton Corbijn ("Control," "The American"). Read full review
40
Time OutTrevor JohnstonJul 22, 2014
Disappointing plod of an espionage thriller. Read full review
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