Keane (2004)

As the title character, Damian Lewis gives a wholehearted performance but his situation never quite rings true: after the abduction of his daughter from the New York Port Authority bus terminal, Keane teeters on the edge of insanity (but then doesn't), struggles to scrounge cash to continue his hotel limbo (but then doesn't) and for the benefit of the viewer (but not for the believability of the story), he also helpfully provides an out-loud commentary of his mad thoughts.

★★☆☆☆

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Our Kind Of Traitor (2016)

Even Ewan McGregor's everyman, a university Poetics professor, says two-thirds of the way through this John le Carré adaptation that he doesn't know why he is still in the picture - having been randomly chosen at the outset to run a message for the Russian mafia's creative accountant, the prof doggedly sticks around, volunteering further help when it makes zero sense for him to do anything other than remove himself entirely from the escalating danger that increasingly involves British Intelligence and dead bodies, but despite this thin plotting, Our Kind of Traitor is an entertaining thriller, tense rather than full of action, set in glamorous locations like Marrakesh, London and Paris, and a bit like Patriot Games in the way a couple's domestic everyday is threatened suddenly by spy thrills.

★★★☆☆

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