The Secret Agent film review: Unpredictable and unsettling
A sublimely nuanced turn by Wagner Moura heads up this absorbing political thriller with a difference
Transcending its generic title with quite some style, The Secret Agent eschews macho heroics in favour of a subversive, eccentric and utterly charming spin on the political thriller, inspired by the American New Wave cinema. Set amid the turmoil and corruption of late 1970s Brazil (described by its director as a ‘period of great mischief’), it’s a delightfully unpredictable and absorbing affair, more interested in mood, detail and place than action, and bringing together an extraordinary array of vividly realised characters.
Written and directed by the brilliant and idiosyncratic Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighbouring Sounds, Aquarius, Bacurau), The Secret Agent follows mild-mannered professor and widower Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) who goes into hiding after he falls foul of the influential Henrique Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli). This former director of a large utilities company hires two hitmen to kill him. Armando finds refuge in Recife in a commune of fellow political dissidents, run by the estimable Dona Sebastiana (an unforgettable Tânia Maria).
Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Film, and Best Actor for Moura (previously seen in TV’s Narcos and Alex Garland’s Civil War), The Secret Agent is as amusing and moving as it is unsettling, and when the much anticipated action comes it’s explosive and eye popping. The modern-day framing device, which finds students digging into historical events, hardly feels necessary, but it’s the mildest of missteps.
The supporting cast are a riot of fascinating, expertly selected faces, while Moura’s sublimely nuanced turn deepens the film’s impact; he wears the weight of Armando’s worry in every inch of his being as an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances and struggling to process the injustice. With political instability spreading across the globe, this hangdog hero speaks powerfully to us all.
The Secret Agent is in cinemas from Friday 20 February.