Barnes & Noble

A bestselling John le Carré novel provides the basis for this droll, cynical thriller in which opportunistic con artists engage in a dangerous game of one-upsmanship that eventually foments an international crisis. Pierce Brosnan is cleverly cast as British agent Andy Osnard, a womanizing rotter whose continual screw-ups get him banished to Panama City. Hoping to uncover information that will restore him to his handlers' good graces, Andy solicits gossip from loose-tongued Harry Pendel, a debt-ridden tailor who knows everyone and tells everything. The promise of government money inspires Harry to invent an underground political movement reputedly interested in staging a revolution, but his little white lies have dire consequences that endanger his American wife, Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), and his two children. Director John Boorman (Deliverance), who co-scripted with le Carré, doesn't rely on stunt-crammed, mindless action sequences to advance his story; Tailor is carefully constructed and richly detailed. The crisply photographed Panama locations simultaneously reveal tropical beauty and third-world squalor, and similar contradictions are present in the main characters. Geoffrey Rush is excellent as the talkative tailor, but it's Brosnan who really shines as the amoral agent. There's no Bondian derring-do in this wry, intelligent melodrama, but a surfeit of pithy lines, memorable characterizations, and outrageous situations more than compensate for the lack of explosions, fistfights, and car chases. Boorman reveals juicy behind-the-scenes information in an exhaustive commentary for the DVD, which also has interviews with Brosnan and Rush, an alternate ending, filmographies, production notes, and theatrical trailers. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Set amidst the controversy of the handover of the Panama Canal from America to Panama in late 1999, this espionage thriller follows seductive British spy Andrew Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), who has found himself recently banished to Panama. When Osnard stumbles into a tailor shop, he meets Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a garrulous sort with an unmatched penchant for "fluence" -- that is, fabricating wild tales with real-life details. Osnard threatens to expose his shady past, until Pendel agrees to provide him with information about the political situation in Panama. Pendel's wife Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries to remain unscathed by her husband's constant follies, which escalate and put him in the midst of international discord, while also threatening the shaky relationship between himself and Osnard, who cannot escape each other's grasp. Based on John le Carré's popular 1996 novel, the film also features Catherine McCormack, David Hayman, and young Daniel Radcliffe, who completed this film before his starring role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, released later in the year. Jason Clark

Boston Globe

Many spy capers lose their intended irony and wry black humor, but The Tailor of Panama stays stylishly on target in ways that would put a heat-seeking missile to shame. Jay Carr

San Francisco Chronicle

Very talky -- fortunately, with actors like these and a script by Andrew Davies, Boorman and Le Carre himself, the talk is frequently good. Bob Graham

Product Details

• UPC: 043396179554
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: A
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Portugais, Korean, Thai
• Time: 1:54:00
• Sales Rank: 37,930

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