In the role of Harry Pendel, Geoffrey Rush is superb. Harry is a nice man who has a talent for flattering people and making them believe him. He worships his wife Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), but he constantly feels unworthy of her, which in some ways he is. It seems to me Harry is what Molly Haskell called "the sexually unthreatening male," both in terms of his occupation and in terms of his home life, where he seems more like a wife and mother than like a husband and father. It’s Harry’s insecurity about his relationship with Louisa that drives him to act as he does. Yet Rush makes Harry such a likable man that we fervently hope everything will turn out well for him in spite of his weaknesses.
Jamie Lee Curtis is well cast as Louisa, Harry’s wife and the extremely competent right-hand woman to the Panama Canal Commissioner. One of this character’s functions is to emphasize Harry’s feelings of inadequacy, so Louisa has to be sexy. This is accomplished mainly by having her seemingly be physically attracted to Osnard in spite of herself, for there seems no other way to account for her going alone to visit him wearing a V-neck dress, which he pulls back to reveal to the audience Curtis’ comely bosom. But in the end Louisa is the only major character to stand for what is right and to keep the movie from sinking too deeply into cynicism.
I enjoyed the quirkiness of The Tailor of Panama, but I must admit that I sometimes had difficulty tolerating its sudden, unexpected mood swings. Also, I was a little troubled that some strands of the story seemed to simply be dropped, and the ending of the film didn’t feel satisfying to me. On the other hand, I really liked the contrasting characters played by Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan, and the two actors have great screen chemistry. Also, the location shooting in and around Panama City is very appealing. On balance, I recommend The Tailor of Panama to anyone who is willing to temporarily forget everything they thought they ever knew about what a spy movie ought to be.
Selected Special Features on DVD:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
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