The November Man

Pierce Brosnan returns as a spy once again to star in the adaptation of Bill Granger’s novel “There Are No Spies,” the seventh book in the “November Man” series. The film, called The November Man is directed by Roger Donaldson and stars Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko, Eliza Taylor, Caterina Scorsone, Bill Smitrovich and Will Patton alongside Brosnan. 

Peter Devereaux (Brosnan) is a highly trained ex-CIA agent enjoying a quiet life in Switzerland. But he’s lured out of retirement for one last mission that ends up going sour and uncovers an assignment that makes him the target of his former protégé, David Mason (Bracey). Not constrained by any rules, Devereaux can trust no one.

Some books translate very well into film, such as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” However, there are some books that just shouldn’t be cinematized. “The November Man” is one of them. The acting is good and it’s got some decent action scenes. However, the plot is so convoluted with too many shifts and twists, some that happen way too suddenly and fast, that it makes for a somewhat confusing film.

The film has good acting, with Brosnan showing that he can still pull off the role of an aging secret agent. He’s able to make searching for a way out, and ultimately cutting a gas line and escaping in a different car believable. Kurylenko also gives a good portrayal of a woman acting like a dog backed into a corner in some scenes while simultaneously being able to pull off hunted prey in others. And she does have a somewhat good character arc, going from not wanting to talk about Russian president Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski) to emailing an expose article to the New York Times.

The good acting also makes for some good action, fights and escape attempts alike. The sequence mentioned above is worth mentioning. Devereaux and Alice Fournier (Kurylenko) are trapped in a parking lot. Devereaux cuts the gas line of one car, and as their pursuers are closing in, he cuts out in a different car and blows the first one up. It’s interesting to note that’s one of only two explosions in the entire film. There’s another good point where Fournier is running from a Russian assassin, turns a corner and grabs a shovel. Pursuer down.

Unfortunately though, while the acting and action are good, the story is quite messy and convoluted. It starts out simple, with Devereaux leaving retirement and heading to Russia to extract a fellow agent, but it quickly devolves and shifts in too many directions. The agent is killed, but he finds a Russian assassin is about to kill someone else with information. However, his agency didn’t even know he was there and was also trying to save the agent, but they killed her because they didn’t know it was Devereaux. Now they’re after him because he’s discovered a conspiracy. And then he finds out the assassin wasn’t who he thinks she was and the girl he’s helping is who he thought the assassin was. It gets very confusing and some of the plot twists happen so fast, that it’s hard to keep up. Devereaux also has a completely out of character moment where he cuts an innocent woman’s femoral artery to teach Mason a lesson. It’s out of nowhere and really doesn’t make any sense.

The November Man is what happens when filmmakers try to make an introductory film out of the seventh book of a series. It didn’t work for Disney with The Black Cauldron and it didn’t work for Brosnan with this one. Hopefully the sequel, which was already greenlit before the film’s release, fares better. 

The November Man drops into the Edge of Dissatisfaction at #9.