A Most Wanted Man

John le Carré has been writing spy novels - and film-makers have been adapting them - for half a century now, ever since Richard Burton's archetypal world-weary agent decided he could not take it any more in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Philip Seymour Hoffman, in one of his final performances, presents us with more of the same - a rumpled, unshaven operative called Günther Bachmann, who likes his whisky and has seemingly been shunted sideways or downwards after some previous cock-up. The enemy has changed, from the Russians to Muslim terrorists, but the arena of conflict has not, as the drama unfolds in Germany. Hoffman is playing German, with a decent accent, and his character is based in Hamburg, where the film begins with a man dramatically emerging silently from a river. We are into familiar territory as Bachmann discovers the mystery man is a Chechen refugee, come to lay claim to the bank deposit of his late Russian father. Bachmann battles to make sense of it all, while keeping one step ahead of the Americans and rival German agencies. Hoffman heads an impressive cast and the plot is well crafted, even if the characters and moral uncertainties seem very familiar and the message remains the same - it's a grubby business, trust no one.