"The Real is what will strike you as really absurd," W. H. Auden wrote in his poem "For the Time Being." He was talking about the 1940s. This espionage thriller based on John le Carré's best-selling novel is set in Panama in 1999. Noriega is gone, but all the corrupt politicians and cronies he brought into power are still around. The poor call the skyscrapers in the city "cocaine towers" and the banks "launderettes" for all the drug money passing through them. Meanwhile, some officials in the United States government regret giving Panama the Canal and look for any opportunity to take it back. And British spies in this post-Cold War era yearn for the good old days of behind-the-scenes deals and winning one for freedom.

This is the fascinating setting for John Boorman's clever, consistently engaging thriller with complex characters who struggle with various alterations of the truth. Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan) is a cocky, slick M16 operative for the British secret service who has been assigned to the backwaters of Panama by his boss (David Hayman) as punishment for his sexual indiscretions and gambling debts. To give him a quick overview of Panama, he chooses Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), an English tailor whose clientele includes the rich and the famous. He boasts that he's continuing a 400-year London tradition of excellence, but, as Andy discovers, he actually learned his trade in prison. What's more, he has financial problems maintaining a farm he owns. The spy tantalizes the tailor with money in exchange for information. The two Englishmen share a love of games. And so their relationship begins.

Harry concocts a real corker of a tale revolving around Mickie (Brendan Gleeson) and Marta (Leonor Varela), who were once members of the anti-Noriega resistance movement. The tailor, who has a knack for storytelling, soon has Andy believing in the Silent Opposition, a revolutionary group led by these two that will rise up against the government again given the right amount of funds. And, by the way, the regime in power is negotiating to sell the Canal to the highest bidder. Geoffrey Rush is very convincing as the tale teller who is stunned by the results of his lies, and Pierce Brosnan makes Andy into a charming mix of sexual predator and cunning con man.

The Tailor of Panama is right on target with its portrait of post-Cold War political absurdities. The name of the game is money, and anybody can be bought. On a broader level, it reveals the difficulties we all have in discerning the truth in the words and deeds of friends, co-workers, and societal institutions that have all become proficient in customizing reality for their own purposes. Whereas other espionage dramas by John le Carré have explored this turf, Boorman and company do it here with great panache and sophistication.