All the Old Knives – Movie Review
101 Minutes,Rated R
Written by Olen Steinhauer
Directed by Janus Metz
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, enjoy this brief look at my thoughts. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Two CIA operatives, and former lovers, reunite at idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea to re-examine a mission six years ago in Vienna where a fellow agent might have been compromised.
Maybe it was my recently-started trip down Slow Horses on Apple TV+, or maybe I’ve always had a soft spot for old-school spy thrillers. Either way, I can unequivocally say that I enjoyed All the Old Knives.
Chris Pine is aging well into his character-actor years, having left the boyish good looks behind him (but not the boyish charm), presenting us a world-weary, yet distinguished figure, weighed down by the task at hand: trying to figure out if his old flame betrayed the CIA and got a plane full of hostages killed years earlier.
What follows is not simply a quiet dinner between former colleagues and lovers, but rather a meeting of two skilled minds, both tormented by the events of that fateful day, as well as the regrets they both share.
Flashing back to the day their respective worlds changed, we see some of the nuts and bolts of both the clandestine and political machinations that permeate situations like this, and the sometimes seat-of-the-pants moves and unexpected moral calculus the participants undertake.
That’s the great part of films like these; sure there’s some action, but in the end it’s all about the acting, and there’s plenty here to enjoy.
The interplay between Thandiwe Newton and Pine is sizzling, and Laurence Fishburne and Jonathan Pryce bring the gravitas of long careers to their supporting roles during the flashback scenes.
The politics is timeless, as is the inevitability of the story, but I will admit that I didn’t see the final jab coming, which annoyed me.
Perhaps, as one of my fellow critics recently told me, it’s okay for me to just watch a movie to enjoy it and not beat myself up for stuff like this.
All the Old Knives releases exclusively on Amazon Prime Video April 8 and stars Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce.
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