All The Old Knives (2022)

We’re into spy season. As we immerse ourselves in Slow Horses, along comes All The Old Knives, and both have a decidedly le Carre flavour, even if Amazon offers something glossier than the more downbeat Apple TV+ series.

The setting is a chic, Californian restaurant on a quiet lunchtime. Meeting for the first time in eight years are former colleagues and lovers, Henry (Chris Pine) and Celia (Thandiwe Newton). He’s still a CIA agent, she’s given it all up for quiet domesticity in Carmel and he’s there on a mission: trying to identify the mole inside the organisation who sabotaged their rescue attempts during a plane hijack, resulting in the deaths of a hundred people. She’d left him just afterwards, so the finger of suspicion is pointing very much in her direction – although the shifty but now retired Bill (Jonathan Pryce) is also under a cloud – and Henry has been chosen to track down the rogue agent because, in the words of his boss Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne), “he can do what’s necessary.” And we all know what that means.

Rooted in the restaurant “interrogation”, the film moves back and forth, filling in the gaps about the hijacking with scenes inside the plane, as well as the practical and political machinations involved in planning a rescue. The human cost is ever-present as we watch the passengers’ terror, as well as the operatives’ own reactions to live executions on screen. In parallel, there’s Henry’s conversations with other suspects and the development of the relationship between him and Celia. Elegant London and Vienna backgrounds, plus the immaculate food at the restaurant, all give the film a glossy appearance, but underneath it’s all about something grubbier – betrayal on just about every level.

A solid premise, then, one with enough duplicity to keep us on our toes – except for one thing. The combination of a large assumption and a familiar trope in its early stages means we soon stop trying to work out the identity of the mole for ourselves. Instead, if we’ve questioned what we’ve seen in those early moments, we’re distracted by wondering if we’re right and then, later down the road, doubts creep in as to whether we were right. It’s a misstep all round, one that undermines the tension, even if the interplay between the characters prevents our attention wandering too far away. There’s an erotic thriller element to the film as well, not as overt as in Amazon’s recent Deep Water, but the complications that come with the affair between Pine and Newton (one that their boss is totally aware of but does nothing to stop) bring an added frisson.

Director Janus Metz Pedersen gives us a handsome, carefully structured piece of emotional espionage, but there’s the sense of much of that effort having gone to waste after that early set-up. He’s saved by a commanding cast – Newton in particular – and our never-ending appetite for classy spy thrillers.

★★★


Thriller | Cert: 15 | Selected UK cinemas and Prime Video on 8 April 2022 | Amazon Studios | Dir. Janus Metz Pedersen | Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Pryce.


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