The Tailor Of Panama

( 1 )

Overview

Set amidst the controversy of the handover of the Panama Canal from America to Panama in late 1999, this espionage thriller follows seductive British spy Andrew Osnard Pierce Brosnan, who has found himself recently banished to Panama. When Osnard stumbles into a tailor shop, he meets Harry Pendel Geoffrey Rush, a garrulous sort with an unmatched penchant for "fluence" -- that is, fabricating wild tales with real-life details. Osnard threatens to expose his shady past, until Pendel agrees to provide him with ...
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More About This Product

Overview

Set amidst the controversy of the handover of the Panama Canal from America to Panama in late 1999, this espionage thriller follows seductive British spy Andrew Osnard Pierce Brosnan, who has found himself recently banished to Panama. When Osnard stumbles into a tailor shop, he meets Harry Pendel Geoffrey Rush, a garrulous sort with an unmatched penchant for "fluence" -- that is, fabricating wild tales with real-life details. Osnard threatens to expose his shady past, until Pendel agrees to provide him with information about the political situation in Panama. Pendel's wife Louisa Jamie Lee Curtis tries to remain unscathed by her husband's constant follies, which escalate and put him in the midst of international discord, while also threatening the shaky relationship between himself and Osnard, who cannot escape each other's grasp. Based on John le Carré's popular 1996 novel, the film also features Catherine McCormack, David Hayman, and young Daniel Radcliffe, who completed this film before his starring role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, released later in the year.
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Special Features

Director's commentary; The Perfect Fit: A Conversation With Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush; Alternate ending with optional commentary; Theatrical trailers
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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse
A bestselling John le Carré novel provides the basis for this droll, cynical thriller in which opportunistic con artists engage in a dangerous game of one-upsmanship that eventually foments an international crisis. Pierce Brosnan is cleverly cast as British agent Andy Osnard, a womanizing rotter whose continual screw-ups get him banished to Panama City. Hoping to uncover information that will restore him to his handlers' good graces, Andy solicits gossip from loose-tongued Harry Pendel, a debt-ridden tailor who knows everyone and tells everything. The promise of government money inspires Harry to invent an underground political movement reputedly interested in staging a revolution, but his little white lies have dire consequences that endanger his American wife, Louisa Jamie Lee Curtis, and his two children. Director John Boorman Deliverance, who co-scripted with le Carré, doesn't rely on stunt-crammed, mindless action sequences to advance his story; Tailor is carefully constructed and richly detailed. The crisply photographed Panama locations simultaneously reveal tropical beauty and third-world squalor, and similar contradictions are present in the main characters. Geoffrey Rush is excellent as the talkative tailor, but it's Brosnan who really shines as the amoral agent. There's no Bondian derring-do in this wry, intelligent melodrama, but a surfeit of pithy lines, memorable characterizations, and outrageous situations more than compensate for the lack of explosions, fistfights, and car chases. Boorman reveals juicy behind-the-scenes information in an exhaustive commentary for the DVD, which also has interviews with Brosnan and Rush, an alternate ending, filmographies, production notes, and theatrical trailers.
All Movie Guide
Based on John Le Carré's book The Tailor of Panama, this is a very fine and altogether rare movie -- a satire too realistic to play for belly laughs and too giddily self-aware and subversive to make a routine spy thriller. It also benefits mightily from some very sharp work by Pierce Brosnan and the presence of Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush. Spying, as co-screenwriter Le Carré has observed, is a squalid business, and it's a credit to director and co-writer John Boorman that so much of Panama's seediness (drug dealers, corrupt bankers, and bought politicos) fits onscreen. Known for serious movies like Deliverance and Hope and Glory, Boorman gives the movie a sweaty, gleeful, sexual edge and pays proper homage to sources like The Man in the White Suit and Our Man in Havana. Another surprise is Brosnan, who ferociously plays British spy Andrew Osnard as a Bond turned inside out, bankrupt of idealism and discipline, all libido and unerring instinct for vulnerability. It's a ferocious performance that shows just how far from 007 Brosnan can go. And Rush makes his character Harry Pendel a jittery collection of contradictions. Credit him for stitching into the character so many threads of weakness, decency, love, courage, mendacity, sweet naivete, and sad cynicism without once rending him.
Boston Globe - Jay Carr
Many spy capers lose their intended irony and wry black humor, but The Tailor of Panama stays stylishly on target in ways that would put a heat-seeking missile to shame.
San Francisco Chronicle
Very talky -- fortunately, with actors like these and a script by Andrew Davies, Boorman and Le Carre himself, the talk is frequently good. Bob Graham

Many spy capers lose their intended irony and wry black humor, but The Tailor of Panama stays stylishly on target in ways that would put a heat-seeking missile to shame.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 2/6/2007
  • UPC: 043396179554
  • Original Release: 2001

    • Rating:

  • Source: Sony Pictures
  • Region Code: A
  • Time: 1:54:00
  • Format: Blu-ray

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Pierce Brosnan Andy Osnard
Geoffrey Rush Harry Pendel
Jamie Lee Curtis Louisa Pendel
Brendan Gleeson Mickie Abraxas
Catherine McCormack Francesca
Leonor Varela Marta
Harold Pinter Uncle Benny
David Hayman Luxmore
Mark Margolis Rafi Domingo
Martin Ferrero Teddy
John Fortune Ambassador Maltby
Technical Credits
John Boorman Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Mary Gail Artz Casting
Kevan Barker Co-producer
John LeCarre Executive Producer, Screenwriter
Barbara Cohen Casting
Shaun Davey Score Composer
Andrew Davies Screenwriter
Ron Davis Editor
Brendan Deasy Sound/Sound Designer
Tommy Gormley Asst. Director
Philippe Rousselot Cinematographer
Derek Wallace Production Designer
John le Carre Source Author
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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Tailor of Panama
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
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Menu

Disc #1 -- Tailor of Panama
   Lies: Play Movie
   Betrayal: Languages
      Audio
         English (Uncompressed) 5.0
         English 5.0
         French/Français 5.0
      Subtitles
         English English SDH
         French/Français
         Spanish/Español
         Portuguese/Português
         Chinese
         Korean
         Thai
         Subtitles Off
   Power: Scene Selections
   Greed: Special Features
      Commentary by John Boorman: On
      Commentary by John Boorman: Off
      The Perfect Fit: A Conversation With Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush
      Alternate Ending With Optional Commentary: On
      Alternate Ending With Optional Commentary: Off
      Previews: Tears of the Sun
      Previews: Black Hawk Down
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 5
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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    a true spy film

    This movie isnt like a 007 film it has a good plot. And it dosent get carried away. I think this movie was beatifully done with great actors

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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review