The November Man

Old spies never die, they just reinvent themselves. Such is the premise of "The November Man," the by-the-numbers espionage thriller that brings Pierce Brosnan back as rogue CIA operative Peter Devereaux. As the film begins, Devereaux is in Montenegro to help prevent a political assassination along with his hunky young charge Dave Mason (Luke Bracey). He doesn't have much faith in Mason, who flirts with waitresses instead of focusing on the spies amongst them. "Need a relationship?" Devereaux asks him. "Get a dog," he replies.

If only he had followed his own advice. But in this adaptation of Bill Granger's New Cold War thriller, Devereaux fell for a Russian operative Natalia (Mediha Musliovic) years before, with whom he had a child. Cut to the present: Natalia is a CIA mole that has become personally involved with a Russian general poised to become that country's new president. As it turns out, he has a dark past as a war criminal during the second Chechnyan war. Natalia knows the name of a young woman that can be the smoking gun in exposing the Putinesque wannabe, who is systematically killing anyone that knows his past, which will eventually include Natalia. In these kinds of stories, the villains always kill the ones they sleep with.

To save her Devereaux is dragged back into the fray by his former boss (Bill Smitrovich), who comes to the Lucerne restaurant that Devereaux owns in retirement and elicits his help to save Natalia as well as learn the identity of the woman that can expose the bullyish general. Also in the mix is Mason, now a full-fledged CIA operative with another mission: to kill Natalia.

That all this transpires in the first 15 minutes only indicates how complicated this plot is, which moves with dizzyingly speed from Moscow to Langley to Belgrade, where social worker Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko) works. She turns out to hold the key to the location of the long-missing young woman; the question is can Devereaux find her before the Russians and the CIA, specifically that annoying upstart Mason, can?

If only what follows built on its promising premise, but "The November Man" quickly slips into preposterous plot memes that implode its urgent mission. Devereaux outdoes James Bond as he systematically (with the help of obvious stunt doubles) connives to bring down that mean Russian and expose a covert CIA operation with ugly political ramifications. And to his credit director Roger Donaldson keeps the action moving at a breakneck pace, yet he can't fill in the holes in the plot or the pathetic attempt to bring depth to the relationships. Perhaps if Devereaux and Mason had more than an awkward bromance between them, the central relationship would have resonated, but both are such cold-hearted killing machines neither seems real for a second. When they attempt to show a tender side, they're like programmed drones.

The entire film seems to be an endorsement for those testosterone boosters - one thing Brosnan doesn't have is Low T. He's calculating and grim, but never very compelling. Bracey offers appealing eye candy as the CIA operative with daddy issues. Perhaps if the film explored those sexual undercurrents, "The November Man" would have been more than a ludicrous, often overly violent exercise in the spy genre (which will likely make a comeback with growing rift between the West and Russia). No doubt, Brosnan is relying on following in Liam Neeson's footsteps as an AARP-action hero: even before thIs film was released domestically, a sequel was announced. Wishful thinking anyone?
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