Our Kind of Traitor (film)

Our Kind of Traitor

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Susanna White
Produced by
  • Simon Cornwell
  • Stephen Cornwell
  • Gail Egan
Screenplay by Hossein Amini
Based on Our Kind of Traitor
by John le Carré
Starring
Music by Marcelo Zarvos
Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release dates
Running time
 107 minutes[1]
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $4 million
Box office $9.7 million[2]

Our Kind of Traitor is a 2016 British spy thriller film directed by Susanna White and written by Hossein Amini, adapted from John le Carré's novel of the same name. Starring Ewan McGregor, Naomie Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Damian Lewis, and Alicia von Rittberg, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2016 by Lionsgate.

Plot

As part of a plan to launder billions of dollars in London, "the Prince" – the head of the Russian Mafia – creates a new bank and has its financial oligarchs sign over their accounts to him. The first oligarch to do so is murdered alongside his family by a blue-eyed assassin.

Poetics lecturer Perry McKendrick and his barrister wife Gail are on a holiday in Morocco to try and salvage their marriage after Perry slept with one of his students. Perry strikes up a friendship with Dima, a hearty and boisterous Russian with an eidetic memory. The two men bond over drinks and tennis before Dima invites both McKendricks to his daughter's birthday. At the birthday party, Dima gets Perry alone and gives him a USB stick that links corrupt British politicians and businessmen to the Russian mafia. He fears for his life after hearing of his fellow oligarch's fate, and pleads with Perry to turn the USB stick over to British MI6 when he returns to London.

Perry turns the information over to Hector, the investigator in charge. The information provided by Dima enables Hector and his supervisor Billy to witness a meeting between the Prince and Aubrey Longrigg, a senior politician whom Hector knows is corrupt, although he has never been able to prove it. Billy refuses to sanction an investigation on a chance meeting. Hector continues regardless and recruits the McKendricks to help stage a chance encounter with Dima in France. There, Dima provides all the names of the corrupt, and confirms each banker and politician involved has received £5 million each for their endorsement of the new bank, with Aubrey Longrigg receiving £10 million plus an additional £20 million for every politician or banker he personally recruited to the cause. Dima refuses to provide the bank account numbers that would verify the corruption, until he and his family have been granted asylum in London.

Emilion, the Prince's consigliere, suspects the McKendricks and has henchman Niki intimidate them by bringing them to his rough neighbourhood. Whilst there, the blue-eyed assassin beats a woman and Perry attacks him in fury. Gail is touched by her husband's protectiveness of others and their relationship begins to heal. Hector reveals to the McKendricks that he only has two men and that he has been funding the operation himself, and they plan to seize Dima and his family simultaneously after Dima has signed the accounts over to the bank. Gail successfully retrieves Dima's wife and children, whilst Dima kills Niki before Perry can find him and bring him to safety.

Whilst at the airport with the family about to board a charter plane back to London, Billy calls Hector and informs him that Aubrey Longrigg has convinced the Home Office the family be denied asylum. With their plan thwarted, Hector must return to London alone. The McKendricks refuse to leave Dima and the family until the asylum is granted and they are safe in London.

Given the McKendricks' involvement, Hector sends everyone to a safehouse in the French Alps. While there, Dima's daughter blows their cover by calling one of Dima's bodyguards, Andre, by whom she is pregnant. Andre traces the location of the call and the blue-eyed assassin leads an attack on the safehouse, but it is fended off by Dima and the agents. Dima chases the blue-eyed assassin into the woods, but is ambushed and almost beaten to death before Perry arrives and kills the assassin.

Meanwhile, Hector has returned to London and attempted to convince the UK Treasury Office that the Prince's bank is a cover to launder billions of dirty Russian mafia money in London. He succeeds, but for asylum to be granted to Dima and his family, he must provide proof in the form of all the account numbers and names of the corrupt UK politicians and bankers involved in endorsing the bank - the detail that Dima still has in his head.

A deal is made that Dima must be sent onto London first via helicopter, with his family to follow once the account information he has memorised has been verified. The attack at the safe house and his wife's insistence convinces Dima to go on ahead and Perry volunteers to accompany him.

The family and Gail are driven to another safe house while Dima, Perry and Hector's agent head to the helicopter rendezvous location. At the last minute, Dima insists Perry not come with him on the helicopter. As Perry watches the helicopter take off it explodes over the Alps, killing Dima and Hector's agent and devastating the McKendricks and Hector. All is lost.

The mafia bank opens in London and begins trading at massive profit; Aubrey Longrigg is announced as the new Minister of State for Trades and Investment.

Dima's family receives asylum after all, arranged by Hector as compensation for Dima's murder while under his protection. Perry visits Hector at home and gives him a gift from Dima, a box containing the ornate pistol that the Prince had given Dima upon the signing of the accounts. After Perry leaves, Hector finds a tiny roll of paper addressed to him from Dima with the list of all the corrupt Britons' names and account numbers hidden in the pistol's chamber.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began on 26 March 2014 and continued for ten weeks. Locations included London and its suburbs, Finland, Bern, Paris, the French Alps, and Marrakech.[3] Le Carré was executive producer and also makes a cameo appearance in the film as an usher at Einstein Museum.

Music

Our Kind of Traitor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Marcelo Zarvos
Released May 13, 2016 (2016-05-13)
Recorded 2016
Genre Soundtrack
Length 62:11
Label Quartet Records

Soundtrack

Our Kind of Traitor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album for Our Kind of Traitor. The soundtrack album was released on 13 May 2016, by Quartet Records.[4][5]

Track listing

All tracks were composed by Marcelo Zarvos, and performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Andrew Brown.

No. Title Length
1. "The Ballet"   6:31
2. "Journey to Bern"   1:23
3. "First Tennis Match"   3:10
4. "Chalet Attack"   5:18
5. "Dima's Children"   1:17
6. "Family Escape, Pt. 1"   2:45
7. "The List"   2:39
8. "Meeting at Club des rois"   3:53
9. "Family Escape, Pt. 2"   4:33
10. "Gail's Theme"   1:07
11. "Second Tennis Match"   2:35
12. "Perry's Rescue"   1:41
13. "Dima's Proposal"   3:16
14. "The Vory"   3:23
15. "Paris Detour"   2:02
16. "Farewell"   2:47
17. "The Prince"   5:50
18. "You're a Good Man, Professor"   1:39
19. "Under Scrutiny"   3:10
20. "Our Kind of Traitor"   3:27
Total length:
 62:26

Release

In November 2015, Lionsgate acquired the US distribution rights to the film.[6]

Reception

Box office

Our Kind of Traitor opened to limited release on 1 July 2016 in the US and Canada. As of 1 September 2016, it has grossed $9,419,763 worldwide.[7]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Our Kind of Traitor has an approval rating of 72%, based on 115 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Our Kind of Traitor relies on solid writing and acting rather than action to deliver its spy-movie thrills — and thankfully has the pedigree to pull it off on both fronts."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9]

References

  1. ↑ "OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Search for Our Kind of Traitor". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Damian Lewis And Jeremy Northam Join Cast Of Spy Thriller 'Our Kind of Traitor'". Variety. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "'Our Kind of Traitor' Soundtrack Announced". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "Our Kind of Traitor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Marcelo Zarvos on Apple Music". iTunes. Apple Inc. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Fleming Jr, Mike; Jaafar, Ali (November 6, 2015). "Lionsgate Acquires Liam Neeson Thriller 'The Commuter' And 'Our Kind Of Traitor' As Part Of Deal With StudioCanal – AFM". deadline.com. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Our Kind of Traitor". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "Our Kind of Traitor (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "Our Kind of Traitor reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 September 2016.

External links

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