All audience reviews of The November Man

Roger Donaldson’s ‘The November Man’, starring former James Bond Pierce Brosnan and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, is the kind of movie that can’t seem to decide what it wants to be – a pulpy thriller like the Bond films themselves or a more artsy take on the subject a la ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. Attempts at both modes are evidently half-hearted here, and neither does the drama between its two principle characters, Peter (played by Brosnan) and David (Luke Bracy), riveting enough nor does Donaldson show any flair for imaginatively staged action scenes. For a premise that seems to pack in so much, the film is far too muted, far too consumed by its own strained seriousness. It’s an utterly generic espionage film that could have been so much more if only it had tried. less