Dir:

Anton Corbijn

With: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams

Runtime: 122 minutes

IT is hardly a state secret that David Cornwell, literary code name John le Carre, has provided sterling service to Her Majesty's cinema down the years. From adaptations of his novels The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Russia House to the recent, highly successful screen rebirth of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, his works have spawned high IQ thrillers about the intelligence services.

A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn, is an honourable addition to the list. While not as seamlessly executed as Tinker Tailor, it boasts a high-grade international cast, including Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last screen roles, a nicely sleazy setting in modern Germany, and a story that feels as on the money as the Queen's head.

The tale opens with a new arrival in Hamburg, the city that was once home to the 9/11 bombers. From out of the mist comes a figure wrapped up against the chill. Just another migrant looking for work and a better life, or something more? Looking on is a shadowy intelligence unit led by Gunter Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a shambles of a man but an operative with unrivalled contacts and an eye for the bigger picture.

Bachmann decides to adopt a a "wait and see" approach, much to the consternation of the Americans (led by Robin Wright's CIA officer) and the official state intelligence services. Meanwhile, the newcomer finds an ally in a left-wing lawyer (Rachel McAdams) as he seeks a meeting with a rich banker (Willem Dafoe) who once knew his father. Who is this man everyone wants, and what does he desire?

Questions, questions everywhere, and over the course of the next two hours the audience is led on a hunt to find the answers. Part of the pleasure to be had from a spy thriller is stumbling around in the fog, with the mist clearing every now and then to reassure audiences that they are on the right path; that they, too, are in on the game. In Corbijn's last film, The American, the tale of an assassin played by George Clooney, there was too much of a pea-souper over proceedings, and the picture left many feeling out in the cold. The director of Control has clearly learned from that mistake. There are still times, especially in the middle section, when the story seems to run away from him, but on the whole Corbijn keeps a tight grip.

He is particularly good at mining the most from the Hamburg setting. While we see the ritzy parts of the city now and then, Corbijn's photographer's eye captures its seductive grubbiness. It comes across as a city of shadows, the ideal home for the modern spy and those they spy upon. In keeping with his determination that this should be an authentically European thriller, the American actors, save for Wright, adopt German accents.

Having set the tone, Corbijn trusts his cast to do the rest, and they deliver. There is welcome exposure for Nina Hoss, Germany's best kept acting secret, as Bachmann's right hand woman, and McAdams playing what Bachmann calls a "social worker for terrorists". Adding to the ranks of strong female characters is Wright's CIA boss, all sharp suit and elbows.

As in le Carre's novels, the characters are recognisable but never cliches. They surprise us constantly, none more so than Hoffman's secret agent. The best le Carre adaptations revolve around a spy master. In Tinker, Tailor it was Gary Oldman as the phlegmatic George Smiley. Gunter Bachmann is no Smiley, but he is all the more intriguing a creation for it. Hoffman, so deep in his character it would take a search team to find the actor within, is a triumph as the troubled Bachmann, a man trying to do the right thing in a game where the rules keep changing.

Hoffman will be seen again on screen in the final two parts of the Hunger Games. It is Corbijn's film, though, that shows him in his element, a shape-shifter to the end.