The Little Drummer Girl

Based on John Le Carré's novel by the same name, this story about Charlie (Diane Keaton) a female double agent working between the Palestinians and Israelis, loses some of the excitement and in-depth characterization engendered by the long novel -- mainly because the novel is hard to capture in a ...more

Espionage thrillers are not as easy to make as they seem. Their success generally lies in keeping the audience off-balance, in setting up twists and turns that come close to losing the audience but that at the last minute pull the audience back in. In order for this to work, all of the ingredients have to be just right -- a carefully-plotted screenplay can be damaged by a bad director, the wrong actor, or even poor set design or unimaginative cinematography. The Little Drummer Girl is a good ...more