This is unusual for a spy thriller in so much as there are no car chases. no guns and no ludicrous special effects.
It's a lot more cerebral than most productions of this genre and the line between good guys and bad guys is murky at best which messes with your head when we are used to having a clear delineation.
I can definitely understand if you watch movies like the latest Mission Impossible (as I was unfortunate enough to do last night) and find they to be your idea of a great spy type movie, that this may seem a bit slow.
The action does come in bursts and as I said above, it isn't the traditional chases and knife fights, but action inside a huge Ops room as people away from the real conflict try to make sense of it and deal with it accordingly.
I'm a Brit so was on the fence, but my guess is that if you're an Aussie or an American, then you will lean toward your country making the best political decisions and being 'in the right' and the other country not really understanding what's at stake.
It's a lot more cerebral than most productions of this genre and the line between good guys and bad guys is murky at best which messes with your head when we are used to having a clear delineation.
I can definitely understand if you watch movies like the latest Mission Impossible (as I was unfortunate enough to do last night) and find they to be your idea of a great spy type movie, that this may seem a bit slow.
The action does come in bursts and as I said above, it isn't the traditional chases and knife fights, but action inside a huge Ops room as people away from the real conflict try to make sense of it and deal with it accordingly.
I'm a Brit so was on the fence, but my guess is that if you're an Aussie or an American, then you will lean toward your country making the best political decisions and being 'in the right' and the other country not really understanding what's at stake.