The Tailor of Panama

Seemingly harmless lies lead to war in this intricate plot adapted from John LeCarré's 1996 novel of blackmail, political backlash and espionage. Geoffrey Rush plays an ex-con and gifted tailor. When a vulgar British Intelligence agent (Pierce Brosnan) is exiled to Panama to ensure that the Panama Canal returns to American possession, the needle-and-thread man concocts a tall tale of an Anti-Noriega resistance. However, the naïve informant quickly gets in over his head as he compromises the safety of his close friends, ignites the beginnings of an international war and betrays his wife, a Panamanian government agent. Although the Central American country is depicted as a cesspool of corruption, poverty and prostitution, and Brosnan is anything but his usual classy Bondian self, the complex plot is sewn together with seamless ingenuity.