‘November Man’ Becomes Pierce Brosnan Show

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A fast paced spy thriller with many twists and turns.

“November Man” may be a paint-by-numbers action movie, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable. Pierce Brosnan stars as retired CIA operative Peter Devereaux, lured out of retirement for a highly personal mission; he soon finds himself in the middle of an increasingly messy situation where he can trust no one and must protect the only witness who can bring down a would-be Russian president with far more skeletons in his closet than even his real-life contemporary Vladimir Putin. If all this sounds like a lot, it is. However, the plot is easy enough to follow, and it moves at a very fast pace. Credit must go to the writers and editors for never dragging or wasting time on extraneous information that doesn’t have much to do with the main storyline.

With that said, though, one of the criticisms of “November Man” is that it is very much the Pierce Brosnan show. While Brosnan does a fine enough job and shows that he can still pull off the action hero roles, it does come as an expense to the other characters. For example, Devereaux’s former-protégée-turned-enemy David Mason, played convincingly by Luke Bracey, is never fleshed out enough to become a character that the audience is actually concerned about.

“November Man” is a good film for those who want an entertaining thriller that touches a little bit on contemporary issues without being too heavy handed or requiring research on current world events beforehand. It may not be the type of film to win any awards or be remembered a year from now, but it’s still worth viewing.