Spooks: The Greater Good **** (2015, Peter Firth, Kit Harington, Elyes Gabel, Jennifer Ehle, Tim McInnerny) – Movie Review

Peter Firth, who played British spy boss Harry Pearce for 86 TV episodes from 2002 to 2011 and appeared in all ten series of Spooks (aka MI-5), gets the rare honour of reviving the role for the big screen after the show is cancelled.

He really doesn’t mess up this brilliant chance for him, holding the screen intensely in a Alec Guinness-Smiley’s People-style performance as our sad and wise man one step ahead of the spy game. Kit Harington, playing Pearce’s protégé, forms a strong double act with Firth, as their two characters spar away, along the road to the revelation of the truth. Both actors are remarkable, playing above their usual game.

Spooks: The Greater Good is both exciting and thoughtful, spending as much time on character and plot development, as action, and delivering very nicely on all three fronts. It’s isn’t quite perfect, not quite as good as a John Le Carré which it closely resembles, but it is still very good indeed. After a good hour and a half of fast-moving plotting, the ensuing climax, aftermath and postscript scenes are all three of them excellent, which really helps you go home satisfied.

Director Bharat Nalluri, who made The Crow: Salvation back in 2001 and directed the first episodes of the TV show, really does keep the pot boiling, and make the most of his action scenes and his locations, mostly a flavourful London. But shooting also took place in Berlin, Moscow, the Isle Of Man and Pinewood Studios.

But the main credit must go to writers Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent for their surprisingly sturdy screenplay. They’re Spooks TV series veterans, which must have helped. Brackley and Vincent took over as head writers for the last two years of the show.

In their story, terrorist Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel) escapes from MI5 custody during a routine handover in London, and Harington’s ex-agent Will Holloway must team up with Firth’s disgraced MI5 Intelligence Chief Pearce to hunt the terrorist down before an imminent attack on London. There’s even a John Le Carré-style traitor in their midst. It’s vintage spy story stuff.

Jennifer Ehle and Tim McInnerny are of enormous help on the acting front too.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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