When Philip Seymour Hoffman died in February, American cinema lost its everyman. Running the gamut from perceptive privileged preppie (The Talented Mr Ripley) to cranky CIA agent (Charlie Wilson's War), Hoffman's talent was to make acting look easy, whether he was playing the fat loser friend or an Oscar-winning Truman Capote. A reluctant interviewee, I chatted to him once at a New York party and quickly realised he was more about the show than the tell. It is evident in every performance including this, his last one, as the German intelligence officer, Gunther Bachmann.
Throughout the film - an espionage thriller based on a novel by John le Carré - there is the inescapable feeling of loss as Hoffman is faultless in the role. He is weighed down by the drudgery of running a counter-terrorism operation in Hamburg which has none of the glamour and whizz of a Jason Bourne conspiracy.
I know I am in the minority when I say that the diligence and detail of le Carre's spy stories leave me cold and I would happily have exited midway through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as I thought it was a yawn, despite Gary Oldman's Oscar-winning star turn.
Those who loved it will certainly appreciate A Most Wanted Man, which I enjoyed more, mainly because of Hoffman, but also because the plot has more bite.
