Janus Metz's "All the Old Knives" sees two former lovers who reunite after being apart for eight years and who reminisce about the time they spent together in Vienna over a long afternoon and evening at a fancy restaurant . Lest you think the resulting film is going to be some sort of hybrid of "My Dinner with Andre" and "Before Sunrise," it should be noted that the period of time under discussion occurred when both worked for the CIA. were working, and there is a clear possibility that one of them could be a mole whose actions caused mass casualties. It's an interesting idea for a movie, I suppose, but it turns out to be a complete setup with a very precious little follow-through. Even a good performance from the two leads can't make the whole thing work.
Eight years earlier, a plane was hijacked in Vienna and members of the CIA station—including agents Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) and Celia Harrison (Thandive Newton) and seniors Vic Wallinger (Lawrence Fishburne) and Bill Compton (Jonathan Price) were involved. Chase down any and all possible clues to try to figure out a way to defuse the situation before the bleeding starts. It failed and all 120 people aboard, terrorists and hostages alike, were killed. Now, new information has emerged that suggests that there was a mole in the office that may have secretly provided information to terrorists. Henry is accused of interviewing the surviving members of the group - who mysteriously committed suicide a few months after the incident - to see if he can find out who is to blame.
Which leads to a reunion between the former lovers at a fancy restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. They haven't seen each other since Celia's flight following the tragedy, and after the necessary catch-up banter and perhaps a hint of low-class flirting, their discussion goes back to eight years. The film then uses a parallel timeline, cutting between current conversations between Henry and Celia and extended flashbacks that show what they were going through during the crisis. It soon becomes clear that at least one of them knows more about what they are doing, and that the sumptuous feast they are consuming is the last for at least one of them. The food will prove to be
As detective fiction goes, "All the Old Knives", which is based on the novel by Olen Steinhauer (who also wrote the screenplay), is closer to John Le Carré's more capricious and realistic creations than the comic book fantasies of James Bond. Is. (Perhaps underlined a little too clearly at a point where Henry tries to order a vodka martini and is refused). The initial set-up scenes are quite interesting but at a certain point things stop working. A major problem is that the flashback structure never works perfectly and eliminates any dramatic tension practically every time you go back and forth. The second is that the big center mystery proves to be nothing—at a certain point, it becomes abundantly clear what the answer is and when everything is finally revealed, the revelation and subsequent interpretation to some extent. Is disappointing.
This makes "All the Old Knives" somewhat disappointing, especially when this meh material is delivered by a bunch of strong actors. Of course, Newton is one of today's more prominent actors, and she invests Celia with enough determination and vulnerability to make the character more complex than the material managed. Likewise, Pine is good as Henry and, with his recent turn in the otherwise disappointing “The Contractor,” exhibits an unexpected sense of gravity that suggests a character actor’s soul is burning within him. And while their parts don't really add up to much in the long run, old pros Fishburne and Price help spur things on the strength of their distinctive appearance alone.
“All the Old Knives” is never anything more than a movie whose narrative can’t be fully grasped given how familiar it all sounds. With mid-sized films aimed primarily at adult-leaning audiences amid a plethora of franchise properties, I would have loved to celebrate this as a throwback. Alas, this sounds like the person whose ultimate fate is on Amazon for those of you who can't find anything better to watch.