Our Kind of Traitor - Probably should have been much better

‘Our Kind of Traitor’ should really have been my sort of movie.  The acting talent utilised really is pretty impressive – Ewan McGregor, Damian Lewis and Naomi Harris all well used to turning in great performances that can lift a film.  I first became aware of this film as a ‘new release’ on Amazon and did wonder why I’d never heard of it before.  I’m guessing it was either released straight to DVD, or had such a limited cinema release that no one really heard much about it.  And for a good reason, it’s pretty boring.

Despite the acting talent on offer, it never really gets going.  A married couple (McGregor and Harris) are on a ‘second honeymoon’ kind of holiday where they’re trying to rekindle their marriage after he had an affair with a younger woman.  Once on their travels he stays out late and gets talking (and drinking) with a particularly dodgy-looking crowd of guys (who have the word ‘criminal’ stamped across their foreheads, in my opinion) and end up somehow being ‘witnesses’ for their good character during an upcoming deal for political asylum with MI6.  No, seriously.

Apart from how generally ludicrous this sounds, I had two problems with the story – firstly I felt there wasn’t much motivation for Ewan McGregor’s character to actually hook up with these dodgy guys – an action that clearly went against his attempts to patch things up with his wife.  And, secondly, the main ‘villain’ (I’ll leave it up to you to decide if they’re villains or not) keeps referring to McGregor as ‘Professor.’ Yes, Ewan plays a university lecturer and admits this early on.  It’s just the guy uses it almost as a put-down, making ‘the professor’s’ compliance in his business even less likely.

Okay, so it’s a little far-fetched, but Star Wars never won any points for its ‘realism.’ I can suspend my disbelief if what I’m seeing is vaguely interesting.  And this isn’t.  It’s not bad, it just should be more due to its actors, yet it comes across as a ‘made-for-TV’ movie that takes way too long to get going.  It’s not all bad – Damien Lewis seems to be revelling in playing a slightly smarmy MI6 agent.  If you’re a fan of his then you’ll get a little more out of this film, otherwise… there’s better on offer.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back