Our Kind of Traitor * * * 1/2

Sorry to intrude. Bit cold outside,
This is a well made bob-along little thriller about an English couple having a holiday in Marrakesh, where they naively find themselves tied up with a man - Dima - who is up to his eyeballs with the Russian Mafia as a money launderer:  A role he’d desperately like to get out of without losing his own life and that of his family.
The English couple are a lecturer in poetry and a barrister so international espionage isn’t really their thing.  Nevertheless, as they realise how desperate the plight of this poor fellow is they agree to at least hand over a file (on a USB key) to MI6.
As it compromises many English Politicians the middle management of MI6 are as interested in the file as Dima predicted they would be, but unfortunately for the Poetry Teacher and the Barrister Lady they are put under pressure from MI6 to get back on the train to Paris and get further involved with Dima who will meet them there.
Loyalty, trust and danger are brought to the fore as the Russian Mafia catch on to what is going on and figure killing a few people might help.
The English couple get more and more involved with Dima and his family and end up willing to take enormous risks with their own lives to protect them. As do some of the MI6 officers who are beginning to have worrying suspicions about the lack of enthusiasm from upper management about this case.
Our Kind of Traitor is almost an old fashioned type of espionage thriller. But it is clear and lucid and has the cleverness of John Le Carre stamped all over it.  (Well, he did write it).

Comments