November Man - 3 smiles

Pierce Brosnan still has it. In his latest actioner, “November Man,” Brosnan plays a retired spy who’s pulled back into the game for one last caper. It’s unfortunate that his script, written by Michael Finch & Karl Gajdusek and based on There Are No Spies by Bill Granger, uses every spy cliché imaginable and mixes them with shoot-outs, fight scenes and chases. But Brosnan is good, giving us a version of what his Bond might have looked like after retirement. Here Brosnan is Peter Devereaux and his employer is the CIA. The movie opens with a prologue set in 2008. Veteran spy Devereaux is in charge of teaching his hotheaded pupil, David Mason (Luke Bracey), the tricks of the trade. During a mission, Mason makes a mistake and, because he disobeys a direct order, a child is killed. Disillusioned and unable to shake the image of the dead boy, Devereaux opts for retirement. Meanwhile, Mason becomes a top agent, effectively filling Devereaux’s vacated position. The main body of the story jumps forward by five years. Devereaux is called back into action by his old handler, Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), to protect a Russian informant who has valuable intel about soon-to-be-Russian president Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski). Things don’t go well for Devereaux, probably because there’s a conspiracy afoot with a mole in the CIA (as there always is) and the informant (who coincidentally is the mother of Devereaux’s child) is killed. Devereaux is blamed and the CIA puts out a hit on him, sending (of course) his former student. Devereaux begins sifting through Federov’s past and finds Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko), a social worker who once helped the underage sex slave Federov was linked to. As Devereaux gets closer to unraveling the conspiracy, Mason is hot on his trail.

Director Roger Donaldson (who previously worked with Brosnan in Dante’s Peak) does well with the action scenes although you have to suspend disbelief when you see the older Brosnan fighting the younger Bracey. The plot has a few holes and the characters are not well developed (but you really can’t expect that much characterization in an action movie). Brosnan is a compelling figure and he is surrounded by a group of capable character actors, making “November Man” an enjoyable afternoon matinee. 8/29/14