The November Man (2014), R, ★★1/2

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, I mean, The November Man. 

Pierce Brosnan was the 90s-early 2000s James Bond. The only film that I really liked out of his four films was his first Bond film, Goldeneye. He presented a suave presence to the iconic character that seemed a little too proper and also while during the action sequences, he seemed that he was not as vulnerable or wounded as Daniel Craig's Bond. In his resumé, he had a few interesting films like The Tailor of Panama, El Matador and The Thomas Crown Affair remake that had some of the same character developments but in better-acquainted story lines. But, in his latest movie, the film has some interesting elements in the spy-thriller genre. Unfortunately, the film just has some lugubrious and dumb clichés that is just too hard to resist noticing to conclusively enjoy the picture.

Brosnan plays CIA veteran Peter Devereaux who retires to Switzerland after a mission goes wrong as his partner and protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey) disobeys Deveraux's orders as he accidentally kills a child during a mission protecting the U.S. Ambassador in Montenegro. He runs a small coffee shop in Switzerland and when being busy, an employee tells Devereaux that a man is waiting for him and it is his old boss, John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich). Hanley shows the pictures of three dead agents that Peter has worked with and John tells Peter that they were not meant to be killed.

Hanley tells Devereaux that a skilled Russian assassin, Alexa (Amila Terzimehic) was employed by presidential candidate Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski) to tie all up the loose ends of his past. Hanley also gives him the dossier of Natalia Ulanova (Mediha Musilovic), who is Federov's right hand woman and agent. She takes photographs of the items inside Federov's safe and escapes, but FSB pursues her and as they corner her, they get shot by Peter and Natalia is relieved and surprised that he took care of it. And as they think that they are both safe, their covers are blown and Natalia is shot and Peter is devastated and finds out what is really going on.

Brosnan and Olga Kurlyenko walking down the streets.

I did not find anything spectacular about the film or anything downright awful about the film. It's just a movie about a retired spy signing up for one last mission and everything seems to go wrong from his informant to the mission itself filled with clichés about the spy and the broadly drawn characters. Maybe, there is something wrong with the premise to begin with because it is not conceived well as the movie wants to start progressing quickly with the mission. Therefore, the characters just run around, kill people and recite dialogue as a ploy to tell us more about the mission and the plot.

Pierce Brosnan struggles to find his forté in this genre, however, this is probably his most committed performance to date in some time because he makes us believe that he is a CIA retired veteran and we see him being complacent and solving the puzzle, however, there are risks to solving the puzzle. It's like seeing James Bond after retirement. Kurlyenko is fine as a social worker but the chemistry between Brosnan and Kurlyenko does not seem to click as their romance is not fully developed.

The action sequences are crafted with great skill and the craftsmanship is the best element of the film. It is some of the best choreographed action scenes this year and Brosnan's character is more interesting than I thought as we want to follow his every move. However, the plot is all over the place, the characters are broadly written, and some of the tension level starts to suffer as the film gets more tedious. Director Roger Donaldson has created a fine action spy film but needed to be tightened with some organization with the characters and the plot. It is not quite a recommendation, but it's a film I'd just wait when it comes on cable or for rental.

**1/2