We loved this, as good as one of his old films - better perhaps. Twenty minutes in I was thinking 'this is a textbook example of how to make a film brilliantly'. Everything is good - the screenplay is exemplary (the Coens and Matt Charman, author of Lee Ingleby TV series Our Zoo), the photography divine (Janusz Kaminski, using 'classic film noir' lighting), the editing inspired (Michael Khan), the acting brilliant (Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance (The Government Inspector), Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Sebastian Koch (Homeland, The Lives of Others) down to the young Max Mauff), the sound and production design and Thomas Newman's music (his 13th nomination!) top class.
Oh yeah, it's quite well directed too. Begins in a particularly classy, cinematic way. Hanks is the archetypal good guy again, 'one is one' becomes 'one is two'.
Loved it. Q thinks film of the year so far. Also loved the ellipses - the unexplored story of the daughter (Eve Hewson, Enough Said, The Knick) going out with his administrator; the only thing we know about the imprisoned student (Billy Magnussen) is he was looking out for his girlfriend and her father...
With its low angles and photography and feeling of paranoia, and especially in the scene with the false family, it was giving me echoes of Orson Welles' The Trial.
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