Acting maestro Philip Seymour Hoffman takes his final bow with A Most Wanted Man

A MOST Wanted Man: The late, great actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is captured at the very peak of his powers in his leading-role swan song.

Acting maestro takes his final bow

THE leading-role swan song of Philip Seymour Hoffman captures the late, great actor at the very peak of his powers.

The sad knowledge Hoffman is no longer with us does initially alter perceptions of A Most Wanted Man, no matter how hard you fight against the distraction.

What to watch: All the latest movie reviews from Leigh Paatsch

However, it is only the matter of a scene or two before Hoffman himself has snapped the audience out of it, purely through the flawless conviction of his performance.

Hoffman plays Gunther, a German surveillance analyst based in Hamburg, a city renowned throughout the post-9/11 world as a warm and welcoming incubator for terrorists-to-be.

As the film begins, local intelligence operatives are having difficulty tracking the suspicious movements of a newly arrived Chechen immigrant, Issa (Grigoriy Dobrygin).

Gunther swiftly isolates the missing link that will give all interested parties a clearer view of this murky figure.

Issa has acquired a massive amount of cash that could be moving elsewhere, and Gunther correctly surmises the Chechen will inevitably approach the one man capable of making that happen. Crisis averted? Not on your life.

Those aforementioned “interested parties” are steadily swelling in number.

The CIA, represented by a supposed “independent observer” (Robin Wright), have shoved their way to the front of the queue.

One of Germany’s leading corporate bankers (Willem Dafoe) is also primed to get a cut of whatever deal is going down. So, too, is a respected leader in the local Muslim community (Homayoun Ershadi), well-known to Gunther for his hidden connection to a disreputable foreign shipping company.

Meanwhile, Gunther and his team embed themselves in a scheme that will compromise the human-rights lawyer (Rachel McAdams) fighting for Issa’s right to live in Germany.

Rigorously adapted by Australian screenwriter Andrew Bovell (Lantana) from the novel by John le Carre (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), this quietly intense espionage thriller can be hard to follow due to the sheer density of its info-heavy plotting.

If you are familiar with the superb US TV series Homeland, an apt analogy here is that A Most Wanted Man is like a full season of that program compacted into two hours.

That it never becomes an impenetrable experience is all due to Hoffman’s immovably centred performance.

Who better to portray a man forever boxing at shadows?

Particularly one who knows he’ll never land a knockout blow, yet keeps swinging away regardless.

A Most Wanted Man (M)

Director: Anton Corbijn (The American)

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright

Verdict: Three and a half stars. The spy who stayed out in the cold

Originally published as Acting maestro Philip Seymour Hoffman takes his final bow with A Most Wanted Man