Based on Yiftach R. Atir's book, The English Teacher, Yuval Adler's "THE OPERATIVE" is a taut psychological thriller about a young Western woman (Diane Kruger) recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler (Martin Freeman) and her subject (Cas Anvar).... (Full plot summary below)
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Based on Yiftach R. Atir's book, The English Teacher, Yuval Adler's "THE OPERATIVE" is a taut psychological thriller about a young Western woman (Diane Kruger) recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler (Martin Freeman) and her subject (Cas Anvar).
Leave your thoughts about The Operative.
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe Operative, directed by Yuval Adler, doesn’t offer much distinctive, but it does deliver a few suspenseful sequences, some interesting nuts-and-bolts details of espionage work and a good lead performance en route to an unsatisfying ending. |
| The Film StageEd FranklDirector Adler has made a very talky film, full of interior scenes and far flung from the hard-edged spy thrillers of Bond or Bourne. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeA proficient but unsurprising espionage thriller from Israeli writer-director Yuval Adler that offers another well-fitted showcase for Diane Kruger’s stern resolve as a performer. |
| Screen InternationalWendy IdeDiane Kruger is compelling in the central role in this pacy procedural thriller which is persuasive in its depiction of contemporary spycraft but less convincing in mounting a case for why she would work for Mossad in the first place. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreFor a genre picture, this one is better than average, letting us see what two fine actors saw in the script and not leaving them or us disappointed in the result. |
| Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThe movie hits all the right plot points but never connects them to a story with any kind of momentum or tension. |
| RogerEbert.comChristy LemireDiane Kruger is as inscrutable to us as she is to her fellow Mossad agents and the asset she seduces in The Operative, a solidly crafted if forgettable espionage thriller. |
| Film ThreatAlex SavelievIts dismal grey/brown color palette doesn’t help the film’s sluggish pacing, making The Operative one of the most head-scratching, aggravating experiences of the year so far. |
| The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyWriter-director Yuval Adler connects the dots of the convoluted plot with reasonable clarity, but The Operative only intermittently builds suspense. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawAudiences may come to this film expecting the conventional pleasures of a spy thriller – excitement, tension, suspense – along with the additional values associated with the very best of the genre: character nuance, emotional complexity, plausible human dilemma. The Operative utterly defeats all of these hopes, chiefly in being at all times extremely boring. |
