Movie Review: All The Old Knives (2022)

A spy drama, All The Old Knives is a slow burning series of revelations. The multiple flashback structure is suitably complex but shaky plot points remain evident.

In 2012, Flight 127 is hijacked at Vienna airport by Islamist terrorists. The CIA's Vienna station chief Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) monitors the crisis with his team of agents, including veteran Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce), field agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine), and agent Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), who is also Henry's lover. The hijacking ends badly, and Celia immediately breaks up with Henry and leaves the agency.

In 2020, Vick tasks Henry with reopening the Flight 127 file, to investigate allegations by recently captured terrorist leader Ilyas Shishani (Orli Shuka) that a mole in the CIA's Vienna office assisted the hijackers. Suspicions swirl around Celia, who is now married with two children and living in California. Henry first visits the retired Bill in London, then meets Celia at a seaside restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Over a long meal they probe each other about events surrounding Flight 127, their relationship, and secrets they have both protected for years.

A grim battle of wits unfolding over multiple timelines, All The Old Knives seeks thrills through mental duels. Avoiding action cliches, the narrative settles down to a series of conversations circling crucial secrets. Olen Steinhauer wrote the script based on his own novel, and Janus Metz Pedersen directs with dour intensity. The burden of spying, mixed with a torrid romance and past betrayals, creates a dense foundation for the drama.

While the narrative starts with Henry's perspective, Celia eventually emerges as an equal, and their dinner-and-wine interaction benefits from lingering uncertainty surrounding exactly what happened during the hijacking. The timeline jumps allow gaps to be introduced, paused, and later filled-in, adding a crackling current of tension. But unfortunately, as the puzzle pieces consisting of hidden motives, personal agendas, and clandestine meetings start to form a picture, the overall plot loses a layer of logic.

Although a few other agents are sketched in, the emphasis remains on Henry, Celia, Bill, and to a lesser extent Vick. The list of possible collaborators is therefore short, reducing the impact of the inevitable twists. Within the limits of the material, the two leads avoid the theatricality encouraged by the confined sets. Chris Pine sips his role through Pierce Brosnan's wine glass, while Thandiwe Newton allows Celia's distance from active service to round her edges into more human than spy.

All The Old Knives refreshingly dares to ignore car chases, combat scenes, and shoot-outs. The focus on psychological control, emotional scars, painful compromises, and principles of trust is sometimes over-extended, but always cerebral.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Two Popes (2019)

A drama spiced with wit and some humour, The Two Popes is an exquisitely written study of two spiritual veterans sparring at their destiny's crossroads.

In 2005, Pope John Paul II dies. As expected, the conservative Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) is elected to succeed him as Pope Benedict XVI. But surprisingly, the reform-minded Argentinian Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) receives a handful of votes.

By 2012, the Vatican is embroiled in a corruption scandal. In his native Argentina, Bergoglio is disillusioned with the Church's direction and submits his resignation papers, but receives no answer. Instead he is summoned to the Vatican for a series of meetings with Benedict. The two men are stubbornly attached to opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to doctrine and the need to modernize, but over several days they grow close. In confidence, Benedict then reveals a shocking intention.

Based on actual events with plenty of fictionalization, The Two Popes is a biographical drama set at a turbulent time in papal history. Writer Anthony McCarten sharpens his pencil to produce an uncompromising script spiked with humour, and director Fernando Meirelles finds a happy medium between theatrical trappings and esteemed locales (including a recreation of the Sistine Chapel) to maintain visual interest. In the deferential and solemn world of Vatican etiquette, the two men are rounded into full and flawed humans.

Without imparting judgment, McCarten does not shy away from the Church's troubles. A long and mishandled history of child abuse, the financial scandal, and the Church's fading relevance repeatedly thread into the debate between the two men. The pace and extent of reforms is a central chism, Ratzinger and Bergoglio representing two opposing attitudes and both men wondering if they belong in the future.

The film is an actors' showpiece, and both Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce are engaged and in top form, juggling multiple languages in virtuoso performances. Hopkins brings a steeliness to Ratzinger, while Pryce allows Bergoglio's emotions to reside closer to the surface. They confidently navigate complex arcs fueled by deep-seated awareness of imperfections bundled under heavy robes.

Bergoglio's backstory is more prominent, and in flashbacks his experiences as a young man then as an emerging church leader in Argentina are revealed, culminating in a painful test of faith during the country's descent into military dictatorship. Argentinian actor Juan Minujín brings bristling fervour to the role of the younger Bergoglio, his loyalties torn in an impossible conflict between survival and spirituality. Brave enough to seek people behind symbols, The Two Popes reveals hearts often obscured by ceremony.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

An adaptation of the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross examines the psyche of frenzied men in an ultra competitive business environment.

In New York, a group of salesmen work at a realty office, using unscrupulous tactics to peddle properties in Florida and Arizona to investors. Williamson (Kevin Spacey) is the office manager and hands out precious leads about potential buyers to the agents.

Roma (Al Pacino) has recently been achieving the best sales figures, and is now wearing down his latest client Lingk (Jonathan Pryce). In contrast the elderly Shelley (Jack Lemmon) is on a long losing streak and getting increasingly desperate, with family health issues adding to his stress. Moss (Ed Harris) is ambitious but unhappy at work, while George (Alan Arkin) feels he is losing his edge.

Blake (Alec Baldwin) arrives from head office and berates the salesmen for their recent poor performance, announcing that most of them will be fired if they don't immediately close more deals.  With Williamson safeguarding a deck of treasured new leads at the office, the men have just a few hours to prove themselves. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and an office break-in adds a new layer of tension to the already strained dynamics between the men.

Featuring a superlative all-male cast and a Mamet script, Glengarry Glen Ross (the title refers to two developments being peddled by the agents) is a profanity-filled high-energy talkfest. The film takes place over just a couple of days, but captures the trauma of alpha males growling at each other to gain every advantage and survive until the next batch of leads are distributed.

All the men are experts at deceit and underhanded sales tactics, and effortlessly flip between smooth talk, pleading and ultra aggressive put-downs depending on the immediate objective. And they are all also pathetic, Glengarry Glen Ross a study of manhood lost to the pursuit of shady profit by victimizing others.

Most of the film takes place at the office and the Chinese restaurant across the street. The theatrical origins are obvious, and some of the overclocked gestures translate poorly to the screen. But director James Foley keeps his focus on the talent-rich cast, often in close-up, and with most of the conversations walking on the edge of hostility, the film rides out the rough patches with ease.

Alec Baldwin's one scene performance as the slick downtown executive berating the sales agents for poor performance and goading them by comparing his success to their pathetic lives has entered into cinematic legend. Mamet added this scene to help extend the short play into feature film length, and while Baldwin's insults are never less than over the top, his unconstrained contempt perfectly sets the stage for the mood of desperation.

In a world where integrity and basic ethics are notably absent, Jack Lemmon shines as yesterday's man, surrendering Shelley to wounded melancholia living on past glories as he frantically seeks to catch a break by any foul means, unaware the sun has set on his career and sales tactics.

Glengarry Glen Ross is where life's dreams of success go to die, submerged in fast talking, subterfuge and self-imposed delusions.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Wife (2017)

A drama about the secrets hidden behind success, The Wife focuses on the patient woman behind the celebrated man, and finds an intriguing story that goes well beyond moral support.

It's 1992, and celebrated author Professor Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is announced as the Nobel Prize winner for literature. Along with his wife Joan (Glenn Close), Joe is ecstatic, although their brooding son and fledgling writer David (Max Irons) remains grumpy. They travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony and associated galas and press events. Also attending is journalist Nathaniel (Christian Slater), who is constantly rebuffed in his attempts to write Joe's biography.

The trip starts to expose cracks in the relationship between Joe and Joan, and in flashback their history is revealed. In 1956 he was an already married young college professor and she was his student and a budding writer. Once they married she supported him despite a series of infidelities. Back in the present, communication between David and Joe all but ruptures, Joe is distracted by young event photographer Linnea (Karin Franz Körlof), and Nathaniel keeps probing, looking for the real story behind the famous writer and his outwardly supportive but tight-lipped wife.

Directed by Björn Runge, The Wife is an adaptation of the Meg Wolitzer book, written for the screen by Jane Anderson. The film is a multi-layered dual character study, peeling away the years on a complex relationship to finally reveal its core. With an exhilarating Glenn Close performance full of controlled nuance, The Wife offers delicious intrusion into the life of a seemingly perfect established couple.

Relevant themes abound, and the changing expectations embedded in the dutiful wife's role is the dominant thread running through the film. During her student days Joan meets author Elaine Mozell (Elizabeth McGovern), and her disheartening comments about the prospects of a female author getting any respect or attention carry a heavy influence. Joan grew up accepting her function as the winds beneath his wings, but close to 40 years later her self-esteem demands something different and society expects no less.

Also prevalent throughout the narrative is Joe's evolving treatment of Joan, from early entrancement to taking her for granted and airily belittling her role in his success. Throughout, she does nothing except maintain her poise, despite his serial cheating. It's only once the award festivities get into full swing and Joe's hubris registers new levels that she decides to take a stand, prompted in no small measure by Nathaniel's interference. It is one challenge for Joan and Joe to maintain the delicate balance of their relationship as a professor and his wife; quite another for a Nobel Prize winner to maintain composure while caught in the glare of the spotlight.

The treatment of the interaction between David and Joe does not work as well. David's sullen mood is inconsistent with joining his parents on a celebratory trip, and for an intelligent couple, both Joe and Joan appear inept at communicating with their son about his writing. Runge and Anderson also short-change the subplot with photographer Linnea, who is treated more as a convenient device than a person.

The Wife is a pointed exploration of the power behind the pen, and the inevitable expiry date of every compromise built on duplicity.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Jonathan Pryce

All movies starring Jonathan Pryce and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Brazil (1985)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

The Age Of Innocence (1993)

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Ronin (1998)

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)

Woman In Gold (2015)

The Wife (2017)

The Two Popes (2019)

All The Old Knives (2022)

The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Brazil (1985)

A dystopian satire, Brazil is an imaginative fantasy both mocking the growing incompetence of out-of-control government and chillingly predicting a miserable future.

In a dystopian alternative reality resembling the totalitarian regime of 1984 gone sideways, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a government bureaucrat working in the mammoth Ministry of Information. With the regime under threat from frequent terrorist bombings, Sam experiences weird dreams featuring themes of flying, escaping from reality, and the love of a beautiful woman.

While investigating a government paperwork mix-up between the names Buttle and Tuttle that resulted in the wrong man being seized, tortured and killed, Sam spots the charismatic but elusive Jill Layton (Kim Greist) and realizes that she is the woman from his dreams. Breaking every possible rule, Sam uses the influence of his mother Ida (Katherine Helmond) to track down Jill, earning the wrath of the regime.

Directed and co-written by Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a quirky and unique masterpiece. The film creates a stunning world far detached from reality and yet starkly familiar in capturing the twin threats of all private information in government hands and an all-powerful yet totally inept ruling structure maintaining control through secret repression and public platitudes. And a culture of official forms run amok. By adding a layer of insidious gallows humour, Gilliam perfects a dark surrender to the inevitable.

Brazil's initial US release was famously botched by Universal Studios. The ending was changed, the running length was shortened, and the film fell flat. International audiences saw Gilliam's original 142 minute cut, and that version now endures as a classic.

Brazil thrives on its fantastical weirdness. Around the story of Sam' search for an escape through his idealistic pursuit of an unattainable Jill, Gilliam creates a world sinking into outlandish creepiness and dominated by...ducts. Bombs go off and are ignored. Sam's friend Jack (Michael Palin) has moved up in the bureaucracy and achieved the exalted level of torturer. Archibald "Harry" Tuttle (Robert De Niro) is a renegade mechanic who epitomizes subversive resistance against the regime by actually fixing things. His opposite character is Spoor (Bob Hoskins), a gleeful employee of Central Services.

There's more. Sam's mother Ida and her friends are obsessed with - and victimized by - the latest face lift surgery techniques. Sam's manager Mr. Kurtzmann (Ian Holm) can get nothing done without Sam, and therefore spends his days worrying about Sam getting promoted. Deputy Minister Mr. Helpmann (Peter Vaughan) is confined to a wheelchair and is the face of government, the closest thing to Big Brother but more real, less effective and possibly orchestrating the 13-year bombing campaign.

The film's set designs and aesthetics are legendary. Gilliam creates a grim world where everything has progressed in the wrong direction under government micro management. Surveillance is everywhere. Uncoordinated ducts dominate every interior space. Cars represent hideous design by committee. Government buildings are imposing spaces from the outside but inside, bureaucrats in tiny offices fight over desks and cabinets literally divided by walls. Rich women's latest fashions include outlandish hats with upside heel designs. Security men are oversized and overweight. Computers are flat screens bolted on to 1940s-era typewriters. Pro-state fascist-style posters dominate every wall space. Few movies have ventured this far into creating a viable, pathetic vision of a society in a march towards irrelevance.

Amidst the madness, Jonathan Pryce holds the film together with a performance combining subdued resignation with an itch to break free. His Sam Lowry is a dedicated government man, but unable to resist the temptation of freedom once his dreams to escape the inescapable take hold. Brazil is the title of the airy 1939 Ary Barroso song playing almost endlessly in Sam's head, representing the promise of somewhere else, anywhere away from here.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Woman In Gold (2015)

Inspired by a true story, Woman In Gold is a drama about an Austrian woman's fight to reclaim precious family paintings seized by the Nazis during World War Two. The film is sincere and engaging, with the flashback scenes packing particular resonance.

It's 1998 in Los Angeles, and the elderly Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) lays her sister Luise to rest. Maria was born and raised by a wealthy Jewish family in Austria, but as a young bride fled to the United States to escape the Nazi occupation. In Luise's belongings Maria finds evidence to suggest that the she may be able to recover precious family paintings, including Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, now called Woman In Gold and claimed by the Austrian government after having been stolen by the Nazis. Adele was Maria's loving aunt, and Klimt a family friend.

Seeking legal advice, Maria turns to young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), the son of a family friend and himself the grandson of the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Initially skeptical, Randy agrees to help upon discovering that the Klimt painting may be worth $100 million. He travels with Maria to Vienna, and they find an ally in Hubertus Czernin (Daniel Brühl), a magazine editor eager for Austria to confront her past. They take Maria's case in front of the Art Restitution board, but Woman In Gold is now considered a national treasure, and the government will make every effort to block Maria from reclaiming the painting of her aunt.

A hybrid of Philomena and what The Monuments Men was trying to be, Woman In Gold largely succeeds in its mission to juxtapose the legal battle for personal restitution with the wider background of the horror unleashed on Austria's Jewish population. Director Simon Curtis finds a harmonious balance between the sepia-toned flashback scenes in Vienna with Maria as a young woman (played with palpable fervency by Tatiana Maslany), and the more modern day legal machinations played out on two continents. The flashbacks carry the emotional punch, capturing a Vienna torn asunder, with many residents welcoming the Nazis while the intelligentsia recoil in horror and the Jews stare at annihilation.

There is less drama in the numerous but brief court scenes. This becomes more the story of lawyer Randy Schoenberg, with Maria frequently reduced to delivering quips for comic relief. Randy's passion starts with a pursuit of possible riches, but after confronting Austrian government intransigence and coming face to face with the Holocaust memorial, he adopts Maria's fight as his own personal quest for a larger justice. To liven up the otherwise staid court battles, there are moments of mild drama involving Maria having to overcome her fear of traveling back to Austria, and Randy's wife (a bright Katie Holmes performance) coming to terms with his new found commitment to a cause.

Helen Mirren sparkles as only she can, and gradually steers the film towards a very personal story of recovery from the grave injustice inflicted upon her family by an evil tide of history. Curtis allows his star free reign to dominate, but then carries the emotions a bit too far into teary eyed nostalgia territory. Reynolds is better when he is likeable and skeptical, and stumbles somewhat when he needs to convey dramatic intensity. The scenes requiring him to be angry or emotional emerge as the weakest parts of the film. The strong cast is rounded out by Charles Dance as Randy's law firm boss and Antje Traue as Adele in the flashbacks, while Elizabeth McGovern and Jonathan Pryce enjoy bit parts as sympathetic judges.

Woman In Gold may not fully glitter as intended, but it does achieve a steady shine.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

The 18th James Bond movie adventure maintains the momentum regained by the series re-boot that GoldenEye provided. The action is sustained, the characters dynamic, the humour appropriately dry, and the set-pieces deliver. The package may be familiar, but Tomorrow Never Dies nevertheless provides shiny entertainment with creative touches.

Megalomaniac media tycoon Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) has a simple plan for world domination: create the news and be the first to report on it. He deploys his resources to build a combat stealth warship, and he hires master criminals Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) and Stamper (Gotz Otto) to do his dirty work. Gupta has in his illegal possession a highly coveted piece of American military hardware that allows him to manipulate satellite signals, and Carver uses this gizmo to trick a British warship into straying into Chinese territorial waters, sparking a bloody international incident that threatens to erupt into World War Three. A side-benefit to Carver's war plan is the decapitation of the Chinese leadership, the installation of a Carver-picked new leader, and securing exclusive Chinese broadcast rights for his media empire.

Both the British and the Chinese intelligence services send in their agents in the form of James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) to foil the plan. Bond is re-acquainted with an old flame called Paris (Teri Hatcher), who is now Mrs. Carver. After Paris pays the ultimate price for betraying her husband, Bond and Lin start to work together to bring down Carver's empire and to fight off the countless goons on Carver's payroll, including the sadistic Stamper. They also need to stop Carver from launching a massive killer missile that the Chinese will blame on the British.

Tomorrow Never Dies does suffer from an overtly cartoonish villain. Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver quickly steps into over-the-top histrionic territory, and makes no attempt at cultivating quiet nuance or controlled menace as the evil mastermind. Carver is outright nuts, and he is totally nuts from his first scene. Also blatant is the BMW-obsessed product placement, with the Munich firm supplying both Bond's four-wheel and two-wheel rides.

But the weaknesses are easily outweighed by the strengths of the movie, and Tomorrow Never Dies enjoys some terrific highlights. The pre-credit sequence with Bond spying on a terrorist arms bazaar is gritty and explosive. Bond navigating his BMW by remote control in a multi-level parkade while being chased by bad guys armed with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades is ridiculously fun. And the best sequence features Bond and Lin handcuffed together in Vietnam, having to escape by motorcycle from Carver's henchmen and a killer helicopter.

Roger Spottiswoode directs with a light touch, complemented by brisk but seamless editing work and excellent use of the Bond theme music. Two years after his Bond debut in GoldenEye, Brosnan is fully into his stride as the smooth agent, effortlessly dispatching enemies and seducing ladies. Michelle Yeoh holds her own opposite Brosnan's Bond, matching him in innovative combat and steely-eyed determination.

Tomorrow Never Dies does not stress the intellect, but it does celebrate Bond at his action-packed best in the spy series that never ends.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.