By John Mulderig | Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — The entanglement of personal and professional interests lends complexity to the espionage thriller “All the Old Knives” (Amazon).
Yet this brainy drama’s impact is blunted by the fact that the characters who populate it are not especially sympathetic or engaging. Additionally, the film’s depiction of its central couple’s physical interaction is needlessly explicit.
Eight years after a terrorist hijacking that ended tragically, evidence comes to light that a CIA mole may have deliberately blown the rescue operation. So high-ranking officer Victor Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) dispatches Henry Pelham (Chris Pine), one of the agents he supervised during the crisis, to discover whether their former colleague Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton) was the traitor.
Henry’s mission is complicated by the fact that he and Celia also are ex-lovers. Should he determine that Celia is guilty, moreover, the result will not be an investigation or a trial but a clandestine rubout.
Olen Steinhauer wrote both the novel on which director Janus Metz’s movie is based and its screenplay. His story certainly has its share of interesting twists and turns.
But both Henry and Celia come across more as chess pieces to be moved around than fully realized personalities while flashbacks to their time sharing the same bed leave little to the imagination. So, although the picture respects viewers’ intelligence, its failure to respect Henry and Celia’s privacy makes it appropriate for few.
The film contains stylized violence with slight gore, strong sexual content, including graphic nonmarital activity as well as upper female and rear nudity, references to suicide, a few uses of profanity, at least one milder oath, numerous rough terms and some crude expressions. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.