'All the Old Knives' Review: Chris Pine's classy whodunit is a gut-wrenching love story
'All the Old Knives' is suave, and for good reason. To start with, it has debonair-looking Chris Pine, and then a downright beautiful Thandie Newton who stars alongside him and a slew of big names in Amazon Prime's slick spy thriller At the heart of it, this one's a love story directed by Danish filmmaker Janus Metz Pedersen. Olen Steinhauer, the author of whose book of the same name the movie is based, helms the screenplay. Two former lovers in the spy business meet for one last time at a plush California restaurant and the tale unfolds.
Toggling between the past and the present, the movie follows Pine's Henry Pelham, a CIA officer who relives a nightmarish event that happened eight years ago when he was stationed in Vienna. A plane hijacking ends horribly as the terrorists anticipate a counterattack and end up killing everyone on board, including themselves. Adding to this is the heartbreak after his lover and CIA colleague Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton) breaks up with him following the horror.
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Station chief Vic Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) tells Pelham that there was a mole at the time of the attack and tasks him with what would be a reopening of the past and interviewing the string of suspects that include Harrison and her bossBill (Jonathan Pryce) who has semi-retired of sorts. While the major chunk of the movie is set in a picture-perfect restaurant, the past is a cat-and-mouse chase with slick cinematography and some copious amounts of sex. It's a love story after all. Wallinger tasks his man to ensure there are no loose ends, and that would mean killing Harrison if her answers didn't add up.
In the end, there's betrayal alright. It's pretty much personal rather than patriotic and that blended with mature performances from the cast, and some crisp writing makes for a good watch. Pelham's chemistry with Harrison forms the crux of the story even though there is actually a case to close, and despite the slow pacing of the film, the duo show why they're perfect for this flick as they command attention in every frame. 'All the Old Knives' rests on one major twist that manifests itself with around 20 minutes left in the film, and although some might get there quickly, it's the why and the how that still piques interest.
Prime Video seems to have made book-to-movie adaptations a part of its content strategy, and safe to say, this one's satisfactory. Stream something else if the expectations are along the lines of a 'Jack Ryan' or a 'Reacher', but this one's worth a whirl.
'All the Old Knives' is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
