Harry
Pearce is about to become the James Jesus Angleton of MI-5. He is convinced
there is a mole deliberately sabotaging the intelligence agency. Unfortunately,
his efforts to expose the traitor might do even greater damage to British national
security. Decommissioned operative Will Holloway will be tasked with stopping
him. They have some complicated history that will get even thornier in Bharat Nalluri’s
MI-5 (trailer here), the feature
continuation of the MI-5/Spooks series,
which opens this Friday in New York.
Adem
Qasim is one of those smooth talking mass-murdering terrorists the media loves
to give a platform to. MI-5 had captured him, but he will escape during the
opening action sequence. This leaves the Americans (or the “Cousins” as Smiley
called us) somewhat perturbed and Pearce on the outs, since it happened under
his watch. Learning the escape was facilitated by a mysterious high level
command preventing air support, Pearce goes rogue to uncover the truth. It
seems he will even make a deal with Qasim, the Devil himself, to uncover the
high level turncoat.
Holloway
was maybe not such a great agent, but he knows Pearce. Reluctantly, the top
Tinkers, Tailors, and Soldiers bring him back to play Pearce’s game, but they
keep him on a short leash. At least they will try. Inevitably, Holloway’s
loyalties will be pulled in every which direction. Of course, there is also a
ticking clock, since Qasim is imminently planning a spectacularly bloody terror
attack.
In
the UK, the MI-5 feature was released
with the subtitle “the Greater Good,” which reverberates throughout the film,
but rises to a crescendo during the third act. Jonathan Brackley & Sam
Vincent’s screenplay makes it bracingly clear what sort of grim, difficult
choices counter-terrorist services must necessarily face. This is not a vocation
for timid or the simplistic. You can definitely see the influence of Smiley and
le Carré, but they stop of positing a moral equivalency between the spooks and
the terrorists.
In
fact, the MI-5 feature treatment is
surprisingly well written, taking several twisty turns in between some sharply
resonant dialogue. To paraphrase Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson’s War, Kit Harington (John Snow in Game of Thrones) doesn’t look like much
of an action star as Holloway, but that is kind of the point. He is supposed to
be a misfit.
It hardly matters anyway. Peter Firth takes complete ownership of
the film, reprising his role as Pearce from the series. He brings a
Shakespearean element to the film not completely unlike Dame Judi Dench in the admittedly
superior Skyfall. It is a deliciously
Machiavellian anti-heroic turn. Eleanor Matsuura is also convincingly poised and
intelligent as relatively straight-shooting agent Hannah Santo. Returning Tim
McInnerny is aptly pompous as agency chief Oliver Mace, but he unleashes some
stone cold hardnosedness in the climatic showdown.
