The Tailor of Panama

The history of Panama and the canal is a fascinating one and well worth researching. It is a tale of hardship, death, corruption, politics and supreme engineering challenges that has resulted in a modern wonder of the world. The canal was run for over 80 years by the American military, but was formally handed over to the Panamanian government in December 1999 and it is in this post-1999 period that this movie is set.

English MI:6 agent Andrew Osnard has been withdrawn from his previous assignment due to a couple of unfortunate incidents involving the mistress of the Spanish Foreign Minister and some gambling debts. His new assignment is Panama and it's his last chance to save his career. What initially sounds to Osnard like a backwater assignment becomes more interesting when he hears about the drug trafficking and money laundering that is reported to take place.

While researching the 200 odd ex-pat English residents, Osnard comes across one name that attracts his attention. That name is Harry Pendel. Harry is a tailor who has lived in Panama for many years and whose client list includes most of the influential business and political figures of that country. Osnard also finds out that Harry is not exactly who he appears to be and that he is in a spot of financial trouble. Both facts make him an ideal candidate for manipulation by the ambitious Osnard.

"Pendel: ...and do we dress to the right or left sir?... Osnard: Never know where the bloody thing is. Bobs around like a wind sock."

Osnard approaches Harry and forces him into working for him by offering him money for information and by threatening to reveal Harry's secrets to his wife. Unfortunately for Harry he is not privy to any secret information and so is forced to create his own in order to satisfy Osnard. In need of money and pressured by Osnard for additional information, Harry creates an increasingly fantastic story involving secret deals and an underground political movement called 'The Silent Opposition'. In order to add an element of believability into his story, Harry imperils his friends, former anti-Noriega activists, by naming them as the leaders of the silent opposition. Harry's storytelling ability, coupled with Osnards selfish pursuits, create a chain of events that threatens his family, friends and the stability of Panama.

This transfer is 16x9 enhanced and has the same 2.35:1 aspect ratio as its theatrical release.

This is a good transfer that has no major problems, but it doesn't quite stack up to a transfer of the calibre of say Seven, Gladiator or The Patriot. The positives for this transfer are many, with good detail levels, a natural looking colour palette, accurate skin tones, a good black level and realistic shadow detail all worthy of mention. What pulls this transfer down a little is its somewhat 'flat' contrast level and a little more edge enhancement than you'd normally like to see.

If you look for them, you will see many occurrences of film artefacts, but they are always small and are not frequent enough to become a distraction. Film-to-video artefacts are well controlled with only trivial occurrences of aliasing worthy of mention.

This is a dual layer disc with the layer change taking place at 54:48. The change is well placed as it occurs during a static shot of Jamie Lee Curtis asleep.

As this is a mainly dialogue driven film, there wasn't much of an opportunity for the sound engineers on this movie to give your system a work out. It is, however, still an effective Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer offering clear sound delineation and good fidelity provided you add two or three extra db of volume to compensate for a lower than normal recording level.

The front three channels do 99% of the work and do a good job of creating an effective soundscape. The actors dialogue was always clear and the lip sync was generally spot on, although I did notice one short period of dialogue from Geoffrey Rush that was clearly out of sync. I doubt, however, that this is a transfer problem, rather it looks to be the result of some shoddy ADR work. The surrounds are used from time to time to carry ambient sounds, but their level is quite low and so they only make a minor contribution. They are also used to carry the score and in this role they are far more effective. The subwoofer was used to support the score and to add some punch to a few of the more dramatic moments of the film.

Director's Commentary: This screen specific commentary features the film's director, John Boorman. I enjoyed listening to it as a variety of information is provided throughout and Boorman is not afraid to say what is on his mind. During the commentary he covers topics such as the technical aspects of film making, the cast, working on location, the history of Panama and more. Boorman has a deliberate pace and tries to clearly explain himself at all times which sometimes leads to umms and pauses. This often results in him abandoning a topic as a new scene forces a change of subject.

The Perfect Fit. A Conversation with Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan: In this 24 and a half minute feature the film's leading men sit side by side and discuss the movie. It's what I call "one watch interesting".

Alternate Ending: This ending can be viewed with production sound or a commentary by John Boorman. The quality of the footage is only average as it is not 16x9 enhanced, resulting in a lack of detail and a soft image. The image is also quite noisy.

Filmographies: Selected filmographies for John Boorman, Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendon Gleeson and Catherine McCormack can be viewed in this section.

Theatrical Trailers: Four theatrical trailers are present in this section. These are: The Tailor Of Panama, Finding Forrester, Legends Of The Fall and Devil In A Blue Dress.

When I first watched this movie I was disappointed. I was expecting a thriller, but what I got was a black comedy with a touch of drama. Once I had this realisation I enjoyed it much, much more. Just remember that this isn't a Bond film. There are no fancy car chases, no fantastic gizmos, no big budget effects, no brassy score and no hit theme songs. What you get is a high quality production featuring an Academy Award nominated director in John Boorman (Deliverance, Hope And Glory), an Academy Award winning cinematographer in Philippe Rousselot (A River Runs Through It), an Academy Award winning actor in Geoffrey Rush (Shine), an excellent group of supporting actors and a screenplay written by the author of the original novel. In other words a movie worth taking a look at.

One final comment to Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, I love you guys but stop using the Dolby Digital City trailer P L E A S E. It's the worst one. If you must have a Dolby Digital trailer on ALL of your releases please use the Nebula or Space version.