Based on the seventh book in Bill Granger's series, The November Man
reteams Brosnan with his Dante's Peak director, Roger Donaldson. Full
disclosure: Dante's Peak is a personal favorite and Donaldson has done
other solid work in the past, such as The Bank Job, so expectations for
me were higher than perhaps they should have been. Still, there's no excuse for
how boring and incomprehensible so much of The November Man is, and
perhaps it has to do with the overlong production that began after Brosnan had
his final shaken martini in 2005. 
Brosnan plays savvy CIA agent Peter Devereaux, who along with his protégée
David Mason (Luke Bracey, dry as toast) botched a high-profile assignment years
earlier. Devereaux decided to call it quits and retire peacefully to Lake
Geneva, running a bistro and enjoying the quiet. It doesn't last, of course,
and before long he's called into "one final mission" by his ex-handler
(Bill Smitrovich) to protect a former flame. It, too, goes belly-up and soon
Devereaux is the target of the CIA's new top killer, which turns out to be
David. 
One of the reasons why the Bond movies are so successful is that, despite
being about the murky world of British espionage, the stories are pretty
straight-forward. Bad guy has an evil plan, Bond shows up, sleeps with some hot
women, and saves the day. The worst spy stories are needlessly convoluted,
almost as a means of capturing the shaky allegiances of those who deal in lies.
The November Man is just such a case, and soon Devereaux is neck deep in
a plot involving an evil Russian presidential candidate, some dirty dealings in
Chechnya, a social worker (Quantum of Solace's Olga Kurylenko) with a
mysterious past...and a neighbor's nosy cat. Yeah, you read that last part
right. None of this stuff is very interesting, in fact it's a total snooze
every time some character starts droning on about past indiscretions, and it
happens far too often. It's a total drag that Donaldson's workman-like
direction can't fully compensate for no matter how many chases he throws at it.
What does work, and is sadly given short shrift, is the father/son dynamic
playing out between Devereaux and David with the youngster divided on whether
to kill or help his mentor. Devereaux's still got the goods and has a few
tricks to confound his young padewan, and he's not against putting innocents in
harm's way to make a point. His moral ambiguity, played remarkably well by Brosnan,
could have been the centerpiece for the thrilling introduction to a captivating
new hero. There's always a chance they'll get it right in the future. A sequel
to The November Man is already in the works, and while that may be
premature considering how bad this first effort is, it affords Brosnan another
chance to kick some ass and look like a million bucks while doing it.
Rating: 2 out of 5
