The Tailor of Panama

Plot

A tailor living in Panama reluctantly becomes a spy for a British agent.

Release Year: 2001

Rating: 6.1/10 (16,046 voted)

Critic's Score: 66/100

Director:
John Boorman

Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis

Storyline
John LeCarre's spy thriller is brought to the big screen. A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife, who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Panama Canal. But what the two do is concoct a tremendous fictional tale about former mercenaries who are ready to topple the current government and are willing to work with Britain and the US to do so.

Writers: John le Carré, Andrew Davies

Cast:

Pierce Brosnan
–

Andrew 'Andy' Osnard

Geoffrey Rush
–

Harold 'Harry' Pendel

Jamie Lee Curtis
–

Louisa Pendel

Leonor Varela
–

Marta

Brendan Gleeson
–

Michelangelo 'Mickie' Abraxas

Harold Pinter
–

Uncle Benny

Catherine McCormack
–

Francesca Deane

Daniel Radcliffe
–

Mark Pendel

Lola Boorman
–

Sarah Pendel

David Hayman
–

Luxmore

Mark Margolis
–

Rafi Domingo

Martin Ferrero
–

Teddy, the Reporter

John Fortune
–

Maltby

Martin Savage
–

Stormont

Edgardo Molino
–

Juan-David

Taglines:
In a place this treacherous, what a good spy needs is a spy of his own.

Release Date: 30 March 2001

Filming Locations: Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office Details

Budget: $18,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: $1,837,068
(USA)
(1 April 2001)
(199 Screens)

Gross: $28,008,462
(Worldwide)
(3 July 2004)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

The word "fuck" is used 28 times in the film

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
Harry the tailor mispronounces a common term of his trade, "worsted". He pronounces it phonetically, but at least in British English it is correctly pronounced "woosted" with the "oo" as in "good".

Quotes:

[first lines]

MI.6 Handler:
Panama.

Andrew 'Andy' Osnard:
Panama?

MI.6 Handler:
Best I could do Andrew. Under the circumstances, given your sins. They were baying for blood.

User Review

Irony for the wicked

Rating: 9/10

If you understand irony, this film should be a real riotous laugh straight
through. It is possibly one of the most brilliant movies so far this
millennium, outright disrespectful of the "spy" theme: Brosnan's
degenerated, decadent b*****d spy Osnard is just the way one would picture
James Bond in real life, had the latter not been so awfully loyal.
Actually,
Osnard is James Bond minus loyalty and with his self-confidence, decadence
and sexism turned up a couple of notches. A brilliant character,
brilliantly
acted. Another fantastic actor is the amazing Geoffrey Rush in the role as
the Tailor of Panama, Harry Pendel.

The story is absolutely fascinating, one of the most clever and witty
stories to emerge in a long while – the Tailor of Panama reluctantly
becomes
a spy and conjures up non-existent government plots to sell the Panama
Canal
to the Chinese, which makes the English and the Americans (portrayed as a
bunch of idiots with delusions of grandeur and as militaristic blow-hards
with victory as the only goal) react aggressively.

It is important that one understands that this film is serious in one
respect only: its comedy. Don't see this expecting to see a thrilling
spy-movie. It isn't, though I find the scope of the film thrilling. It's
more of a comedy, and if you can't see that when the American general with
tears in his eyes blurts: "There is a star missing from the American
flag!",
then you're not really equipped for this kind of film. The reason I'm
writing this is that some reviewers have found the movie to be silly…
which is just what one would think if one didn't get it.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.