When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg's Islamic community, laying claim to his father's ill gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest: as the clock ticks down and the stakes rise, the race is on to establish this most wanted man's true identity - oppressed victim or destruction-bent extremist? Based on John le Carré's novel, A MOST WANTED MAN is a contemporary, cerebral tale of intrigue, love, rivalry, and politics that prickles with tension right through to its last heart-stopping scene.

The plot hardly matters here; it's only a vehicle for exploring the dirty side of intelligence work and is complicated as a Swiss watch. Maybe the NSA revelations have you thinking twice about spywork? The fact that we caught spying on our own allies, the Germans, adds a special relevance to this tale. But the real appeal here is a)LeCarre's dark, dark, dark worldview and b) Hoffman's superb acting. He just tosses this role off, and is utterly convincing. After you see this you should see the film that perfectly bookends it: LeCarre's early '60s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Just as gritty and dirty and with Richard Burton as Alec Leamus. Like Gunther Bachmann,Leamus was a worn-out, beat-up, used-up operative, and audiences of the time, entranced by the frivolities of James Bond, were rather shocked by the dose of reality he represented.