Year Released: 2016
Directed by: Susanne Bier
Starring: Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Colman Tom Hollander
(TV MA, 6 episodes, about 1 hour each)
Genre: Mystery and Suspense, Spy Thriller

“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Sir Walter Scott

John le Carré makes a cameo in this film based on his first post-Cold War 1993 novel. But unlike Hitchcock, he is neither quiet nor demur. In fact, he just about steals the scene and invents some lines impromptu.

But more about that later.

Forget being swathed in rain, fog, and great amber waves of tobacco smoke (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Texczech Kolaches) or long waits at that grim barrier in Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, where our spy is as drained and lifeless as the grey surroundings (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: Scotch Chocolate Mousse).

We spend most of our time in sunny Majorca, Spain, at a mansion to die for. In fact, that is literally true, since it is paid for with untold corpses meeting their deaths through our charming villain Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), who masks his arms deals behind world tours for “charity.”

Roper’s secure hilltop hideaway is in reality La Fortaleza, an old military fort in the far north of Mallorca, overlooking the popular resort of Puerto Pollensa.

The plot is as complex and intricate as you might expect from le Carré, so I will not go down that rabbit hole, but just glimpse it from above.

The Night Manager is based on John le Carre's novel, ex-British soldier and now night manager of a luxury hotel in Cairo Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is recruited by MI-6's Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) to infiltrate the inner circle of an arms trader named Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie).

Tom Hiddleston plays the night manager with aplomb, although some have noted he is too nice, only displaying his ruthless darker side a few times. Of course, films always soften up our flawed leading men, don’t’ they, as when he played Loki in the original Thor.

There Hiddleston plays the God of Mischief with a kind of Heathcliff truculence (from the Emily Bronte novel, not the comic strip) hidden under his protestations of brotherly love and loyalty. We suspect he is a bad lot right from the beginning, but Hiddleston manages to put some texture into his portrayal and encourages just the slightest hint of empathy for his Loki.

Of course, Hugh Laurie is good – when is he not? He is a doting father, an indulgent/insecure lover, and a ruthless sociopath behind his “smile and smile and still be a villain” façade. His nihilistic view is best demonstrated in this little speech:

Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realizing that it’s all rotten. Realizing how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.

Two others stand out as well. One is Olivia Coleman playing the MI 6 agent who recruits Pine. In the novel, her character is a male, but Different Drummer agrees with le Carré that the change works very well. This in no girl power politically correct change, but one that adds dimension. Or as Stuart Barr observes

The Etonian ranks of ‘the River House’ – the informal name for MI-6’s Vauxhall HQ – casually condescend to Burr and her “modest enforcement agency”, but she uses this condescension against them.

Not only she is a woman in the man’s world of British Intelligence, but she is also working class, as displayed by the lack of plumy vowels oozing from her mouth. And the rather plain looking middle-aged agent is also increasingly pregnant with her first child, too.

It is only her resolve that keeps Burr in the game almost until delivery time.

Finally, someone we love to hate, Tom Hollander as “Corky,” the sinister fixer Lance Corcoran. He is suspicious of Pine from the get-go and always scheming to discredit him. And the little snake does eventually get something, but Burr and Pine diffuse it with their owning scheming. See Food-Loving Foodie below for some bitter fruits, or shall we say, misappropriated Lobster Salad.

A mesmerizing series, although Pine ventures into a forbidden liaison that will probably have you yelling at the screen in the same way you do when those intrepid young things venture into a dark basement you know they shouldn’t. That Pine is on a sunny isle, encased in a mansion with a lanky beauty luring him in doesn’t make his moves any less perilous or foolish.

Enjoy the dangers, loathe the villains, and enjoy every twist and turn along the way. The blue cerulean skies just make the ironies more intense.

–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Perhaps the most dramatic and pivotal scene occurs at a classy restaurant, where a drunken Corky, recently demoted and replaced by Johnathan Pine as Roper’s top man, lashes out at his usurper. Ostensibly toasting our charming villain and his girlfriend/mistress, Jed, Pine and Jed eye each other longingly. Corky knows of their clandestine trysts, though, and blurts out

…a toast to “the lovers” and thinly veiled taunts to Roper “the blind man who cannot see the human bloody hand grenade in front of his bloody eyes.” –Stuart Barr

Then, outraged that no more lobster remains for his ordered Lobster Salad, Corky grabs that already ordered plate from an older gentleman awaiting it. That “older gentleman” in nonother than the author of the novel now being filmed.

And it is the precise moment when John Le le Carré steals the scene …almost.

According the Le le Carré’s son,

“Across the table came: ‘My dear man, what the hell’s going on?’ That wasn’t in the script. Hiddleston apologises. ‘I think you bloody well should.’ That wasn’t there either. What was going on? An extra was stealing the scene. But Dad was right: it didn’t make sense, if your food had just been stolen, that you’d just smile when the transgressors came to discuss it with you. Dad felt his character had to speak out. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise; the author had just rewritten his own scene – and made it better.” –Stephen Cornwell, son of John le Carré, the pseudonym for MI5 and MI6 intelligence officer David Cornwell, (Incidentally, the writing name means “John the Square” in French.)

So enjoy our elegant and delicious Lobster Salad, but don’t let any bitter little snakes steal it.

Majorcan Lobster Salad

This lobster salad is a combination of fresh lobster meat, vegetables and herbs in a light and creamy dressing. An easy yet elegant dish that makes for the perfect lighter main course option!

–Sara Welch

Ingredients

· 1 1/2 pounds cooked lobster meat approximately 3 1/2 cups, cut into 3/4 inch pieces

· 1/3 cup mayonnaise

· 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

· 1/4 cup celery finely chopped, use the tender inner stalks

· 1 tablespoon chives thinly sliced, plus more for garnish

· salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place the lobster meat, mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery, chives, salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir gently to combine.

2. Serve immediately, or chill for up to 4 hours. Garnish with additional chives before serving.

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