"The November Man" Review

Title: The November Man

Directed by: Roger Donaldson

Screenplay by: Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek

Year: 2014


Pierce Brosnan, a former James Bond, and Olga Kurylenko, a former Bond girl, are now in a spy film together. I honestly don't know what to make of that happenstance.

Former CIA agent Peter Devereaux (Brosnan) is called back into action by his old boss John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich) to extract another CIA agent from her mission. However, in doing so, he comes face to face with his former student who failed him in the past. Now the agency is after Devereaux and leading the charge is his old protégé, David Mason (Luke Bracey).

The November Man seemingly has three story lines. One is of a missing girl named Mila Filapova, who had vital information on the Russians. This storyline works well enough but that's really all that can be said. Nothing inherently bad but nothing too special either. The second is of a mole in the CIA. This subplot is visited every so often only to remind the audience of its existence because it feeds in heavily to the final act. The final storyline is the one that was most marketed in the trailers, the conflict between Devereaux and Mason. I must say that I am always intrigued by student vs. master story lines because it presents the opportunity for some great drama. Having said that, this potential is almost never realized. Sadly, The November Man doesn't quite hit the mark either. That's not to say the film doesn't have its shining moments though. Unfortunately however, the Devereaux-Mason conflict is the storyline which receives the least amount of attention in favor of the previous two I mentioned.

Pierce Brosnan plays Devereaux exactly the way you would expect him to, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Brosnan can play this role in his sleep and is by the far the greatest actor in the film. Everyone else does a decent job, but nothing spectacular or noteworthy. Bracey does a fine job as Mason but had his performance been better, the storyline would have been a lot better as well. If i had to call attention to one of the other actors though it would have to be Smitrovich, who doesn't have the biggest role but there comes a point in the film where his character changes and Smitrovich does a fine job with his "new" character.

The biggest discredit to this film is that we've all seen it before. The majority of what it has to offer has been done multiple times previously. As a result, it has an air of predictability throughout its runtime. However, the original and creative aspects of this film really shine. This movie presents some inventive ideas. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. There is one particular scene I would like to call attention to though, because I believe it was the moment where The November Man found its footing.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* The scene where Devereaux is in Mason's apartment holding Sarah (Eliza Taylor) hostage is easily the film's best scene. Devereaux is testing Mason's character. The way the sequence is shot, edited, written, acted, it's all fantastic. This was a very tense scene and the best thing about it is that it was not predictable. The majority of the film up to this point didn't really catch me by surprise but when this scene came around, I was on the edge of my seat and I had no idea how it was going to turn out. Had The November Man been more like this as a whole, it could have been an excellent film.


*SPOILER FREE* As with most spy films, we get plenty of action in this one. And though we've seen a lot of it before, the action is still satisfyingly sweet. There are some pretty tense chases and some cool moments. Roger Donaldson directed the action very well, however his direction of symbolism was all over the place. There were moments when he let the visuals speak for themselves but there were others where the camera obviously lingered on a particular object or image too long or when printed words were used to convey meaning. The latter moments came across as forced and unnecessary. Something else this film has to offer is some pretty good humor. There were moments when the entire  audience burst into laughter at some pretty good one-liners.

Overall, The November Man is not a great film. But I didn't expect it to be honestly. I expected your regular, run of the mill action spy movie. And that's what The November Man is. Granted, it throws a few new things into the mix, some of which I would go so far as to call spectacular. However, the film is still bogged down by mediocrity and predicability. I had some fun with it, but it could have been much better.

Grade: C