The Tailor Of Panama
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis
Extras: Commentary Track, Featurette, Alternate Ending, Trailers, Filmographies
Rating:
Once again, Pierce Brosnan plays a spy – only this time he’s a ruthless bastard. After interfering with his boss’ marital affairs, Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan) is transferred to Panama, to evaluate the political climate there. He uses the local tailor Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush) as a source of information, since he dresses the city’s elite. What Andy doesn’t realize at first is that Harry has a talent for storytelling and that all of his reports are a figment of his imagination. The problem is that the Secret Service takes these reports seriously and the tailor’s fantasies trigger a series of serious events.
The story of ’The Tailor Of Panama’ is refreshing and intriguing, but sadly the execution of the film lags a bit behind. Slow and overbearing at times, the story unfolds at a pace that could have used trimming. On the other hand, the film has some fine, funny moments, mostly carried by Brosnan in a dastardly role that he portrays a smoothly as ever.
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment gives us ’The Tailor Of Panama’ in an anamorphic widescreen transfer that is very clean and without defects. A high level of detail presents us with a rich picture that maintains plenty of definition throughout. Full of nighttime scenes, the blacks in the transfer render the image with good visual depth while highlights are restored perfectly without bleeding. The warm color palette used in the movie is also nicely restored with vibrant hues and naturally looking fleshtones. The compression is without flaws or compression artifacts.
The DVD contains a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio track that is very aggressive and modern in its feel. With aggressive surround usage and a wide frequency response, the track is very engaging and without flaws. Dialogues are well integrated and always remain understandable among the music and the sound effects.
An informative commentary track by director John Boorman, an alternate ending and a conversational featurette with Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush are also part of this release that is rounded out by trailers and filmographies.
’The Tailor Of Panama’ is not quite as good as I had expected, especially given its high caliber cast, but still it is solid entertaining, although not nearly as engaging and thought-provoking as it could have been.
