I must admit, I've not been a fan of relatively recent movies based on John le Carre's novels. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Most Wanted Man were rather bland and overwrought, and left a lot to be desired. I'm not ashamed to admit that until I saw the new TV miniseries The Night Manager, I thought the man's works were overrated and not really adaptable for the screen. What the hell did I know.
The Night Manager, new miniseries (BBC and AMC) based on one of le Carre's novels from some thirty years ago, is good. No, seriously. It's really good. Exploring the secret mission of one Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), a British agent working undercover to bring down an international illegal arms smuggler Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), the series is perfectly written, directed and acted all around. We are treated to some glorious locales around the globe - Egypt, Spain, England, Turkey, Switzerland, to name just a few - and the cast does an excellent job of emitting subtle details of their characters' relationships to one another. Ascene in a seafood restaurant between a frustrated Lance Corkoran (Tom Hollander) and an under-appreciated waiter is executed to near perfection; Hollander himself deserves an award for his bold performance, which is convincing to the max.
Director Susanne Bier, who admirably helmed every single episode, does a terrific job of keeping the tension and suspense at the highest level, from the opening moment to the final second. She captures le Carre's story and theme appropriately, and is just as much of a creator of the story's time and place as le Carre here (setting has been updated from the novel's 1980s to today). I don't know if there really are bad guys like Roper in our world, but it's hard to imagine there not being anyone who at least slightly resembles him. All I can do in that case is hope that a real-life Jonathan Pine is out there somewhere, endangering himself and risking everything to keep us and our neighbors safe.
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