John Le Carré, past master of the espionage tale, has had to shift gears thanks to the end of the Cold War and the emphasis on such varied developments as gangster capitalism in the post-Soviet Union, the egregious wrongdoings of multinationals, and the senseless violence of the war on terror. He still gives us colorful characters dealing with greed, selfishness, and murder as essential ingredients in the human adventure but now they are operating in fresh venues.
In Our Kind of Traitor, Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris are Perry and Gail, an American couple on vacation in Marrakesh. He is a university professor and she's a successful lawyer. They have been with each other for years and have not yet married. It seems like the magic that once drew them together has vanished.
One night, Perry is befriended by Dima (Stellan Skarsgard in a stellar performance), a loud, vulgar, and cocky Russian mafioso who is involved in a huge money-laundering scheme that involves some well-known British politicians. This larger-than-life stranger is a very convincing fellow who manages to get Perry to deliver some crucial information on the global operations of the Russian underworld to British intelligence. In exchange, Dima wants to gain amnesty for his wife and children. Perry agrees to serve as the middleman and winds up working with Hector (Damian Lewis), a morally indignant M16 agent who is appalled by the lack of zeal for this mission by his tradition-bound peers.
Susanna White serves as director of this tense and morally complex drama where money and malevolent might dominate the affairs of government, business, the British Secret Service, and the Russian Mafia. Our Kind of Traitor is an old-fashioned movie that has some interesting things to say about trust, honor, and conscience in these troubled times.