Posts Tagged "intrigue" from 2025

The 1956 version, not Hitchcock's 1934 original.

This is a phenomenal movie, full of first-rate intrigue, false identities and double-crossing. Cary Grant gives a excellent performance; we are never sure until the very end where his loyalties lie, or even who his character really is. An Audrey Hepburn gives a perfect portrayal of an uncertain yet brave woman who is not just a 21st-century "strong female character."

A poignantly creepy thriller that leaves me wanting to discuss and debate. For instance, the men of Stepford are obviously crueler than men of today who get sucked in by AI girlfriend chat apps -- but are the Stepford husbands weaker than today's men? A Stepford wife at least offers the illusion of life, and is designed, however chauvinistically, to be part of a household, a family. An AI girlfriend is a method for a man to completely detach from love and romance; it offers a way to safely reject life outside one's self.

For the love of all that is good in this world, do not watch the 2000s remake.

A solid spy thriller by a master of the genre. This is the second book I've read by Le Carre, the other being his famous The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Naturally, he knows his spy tradecraft, the details of which are used to great effect in portraying a competent protagonist drawn into events larger than himself, by no fault of his own.

Le Carre also deftly makes reveals that kept me turning pages til the end. As with Came in from the Cold, the ending happens suddenly and all at once. As in that other great spy thriller, The Day of the Jackal, the full strength of the protagonist's plan is kept secret from the reader till the very end, yet (also as in Jackal) it's all very logical: Le Carre doesn't cheat the reader by pulling things out of his rear end.

As strong as the famous train-and-car chase is, for my money it's too hectic to be this movie's best scene. I prefer the foot chase where Detective "Popeye" Doyle tries and fails to catch Charnier, the stately criminal mastermind. The cinematography and the actors' movements make it; the steadily increasing tension of the score clinches it.

Nothing could possibly be drier than a movie about Japanese salarymen who work in banking, right?

Not so.

Shylock's Children is an intricate tale of fraud and counter-fraud, with a new level of deception appearing every time when you think the movie can't get any more complex. There's a lot packed into these two hours, and it's well worth your time.