The Tailor of Panama

few minutes of John Boorman’s daiquiri-of-a-spy-movie suggests why Pierce Brosnan wanted out of Ian Fleming and Bond, or said he did. Fleming’s prose as adapted for the screen has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, while John Le Carré knows spies as baggy weasels and hucksters who usually flop when showing off. British intelligence officer Andy Osnard (Brosnan) is unhappily exiled to Panama for his libidinal improprieties. There, he finds Harry Pendal (Geoffrey Rush), an unctuous tailor who’s considerably more than that. His wife Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis) works for the Panamanian president. At issue is control of the Panama Canal. Rush’s Pendal is devastating, a deferential charmer who loathes his own falsity. Brosnan makes Osnard a mean but quiet predator who talks like a cobra. Here is a realistic, stylish film about cynical agents outside patriotism’s reach. Watch for Harold Pinter as Uncle Benny.