Mossad (Israeli intelligence) is trying to find a Belgian companies' factory making nerve agent gas for Syria. Syrian agents are active in Belgium to protect their interests. Ben Kingsley is a gnarled old Mossad agent prone to falsifying reports to make fraudulent intelligent claims pocketing the reward money himself. Now, having been found out he must investigate the situation or else his bosses will have him imprisoned. A complex web of intrigue and action drive the film along. A few twists and turns revolving around who is deceiving who keep the interest level up. Interesting seeing the lengths Mossad will go to in order to spin a yarn to fool (they hope) their enemies.
Worth a watch and a more intelligent type of spy story than Bond etc
This spy thriller is very convoluted to the point of it being incomprehensible. It's a clear attempt at making a John Le Carré style story but without using the source material. That was a risk and it doesn't pay off because even though Ben Kingsley, channelling a George Smiley vibe, tries to add some gravitas here this is so confusing and unnecessarily so. Much of the twist and turns and double crosses can be worked out beforehand and by the end leaves you feeling there was no point to it all. Kingsley is the ageing, ill yet experienced Mossad agent, Adereth, based in Belgium where he's looking into a chemical company selling dangerous chemicals to Syria who make biological weapons out of them. Mossad are wary so send young agent Daniel (Itay Tiran), who happens to be the son of Adereth's late best friend, to watch over the older man. Meanwhile Adereth begins a relationship with a beautiful doctor (Monica Bellucci), a committed environmentalist, and who, despite his declared love he decides to use to help him. Of course no one is who they appear to be and no one trusts anyone. It's all very implausible and although allegedly based on a true story, the story never really grips. A shame really as there's arguably a good story in here trying to get out but it's far too murky to be enjoyable, it lacks action and excitement and overall is a tad boring.
My one star rating may be misleading because unfortunately I can’t rate or review it as despite checking the film information to confirm that it had English Hard of Hearing subtitles before ordering, when I started watching it, having selected the HoH subtitle option, the only subtitles that appeared were for foreign language translation. I have therefore not been able to watch this. A frustrating and disappointing experience.