‘The November Man’ pushes all the right buttons for a spy caper

The spy thriller enjoyed its heyday in the 1960s, thanks mostly to James Bond, but still endures five decades later because it provides everything viewers want in their entertainment: action, suspense, sometimes colorful villains, great spy vs. spy posturing and sex appeal.

Pierce Brosnan has earned his “license to kill,” having done a term as James Bond and also starred in less fanciful but engrossing political thriller films such as “The Tailor of Panama.” In “The November Man” he fits in comfortably as Devereaux, an ex-CIA operative trying to live a quiet life as a restaurant owner who is called back into the game by a former colleague. He is asked to conduct what seems to be a simple extraction mission but it turns out to be a complicated entanglement that involves high politics and ends up putting a big, fat bulls-eye on the back of Devereaux.

Like most heroes in such adventures, Devereaux was exceptional in his job performance, a real asset to the company. Also, as a familiar plot element, it is tragedy of a mission gone wrong that likely led to his retirement.

“November Man” opens with a sequence in 2008 in which Devereaux, on a mission to thwart a potential assassination, is working with a younger operative, Mason (Luke Bracey), whose disobedience of an order by Devereaux results in unintended collateral damage.

Five years later, the retired Devereaux is visited by one of his former handlers, Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), who informs the ex-operative that some other agents in the field are being picked off by a coldly efficient killer, Elexa (Amila Terzimehic), and one of those in danger is a woman, Natalia (Mediha Musliovic), with whom Devereaux has had a history and now as an undercover agent is a close associate of the man expected to be the next president of Russia, Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski). Hanley claims that Natalia’s cover has been compromised, and she specifically requested Devereaux for the extraction mission.

Although Devereaux does manage to pick up Natalia, he learns things are not what they seem. Natalia was not expecting him after all, and soon the two are being pursued by some unknown people. Things wind up bloodily, and Devereaux learns that he and Natalia are being targeted by the CIA, with Mason as part of that team.

Natalia had provided Devereaux with the identity of a woman who has information that could not only destroy Federov’s political ambitions but also have him put away for war crimes. Devereaux soon hooks up with Alice (Olga Kurylenko), who may be able help him track down this woman before others find her and kill her.

Of course, now Devereaux is a marked man, by the agency that previous employed him. In addition, the professional killer Elexa also hot in pursuit.

“The November Man” becomes a story of two people being hunted by dangerous people with a lot of resources at hand. So the odds are against Devereaux and Alice, and the added touch is the now adversarial relationship between an old pro and his former pupil.

Director Roger Donaldson, who worked with Brosnan previously on “Dante’s Peak,” maintains a lively pace, and the script by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek — based upon a novel by Bill Granger — does a good job of keeping the viewer guessing. There are the usual twists and betrayals and finger-biting scenes of potential disaster to keep the audience taut.

Brosnan presents Devereaux as a world-weary man who once again has to rely on his instincts and skills to survive. Realistic elements include the man’s need to calm his nerves via alcohol and the revelation that Devereaux, when training Mason, in one vital aspect did not practice what he preached.

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