Film review: All The Old Knives is as much a love story as it is a spy thriller

Chris Pine in All the Old Knives

★★★★☆

All the Old Knives (15A) stars Chris Pine as Henry Pelham, a CIA veteran who travels from Vienna to California to interview his former colleague, and ex-lover, Celia (Thandiwe Newton), about a hijacking in 2012.

New information has revealed that the hijacking — which went disastrously wrong, and resulted in the death of more than 100 passengers, children included — was achieved with inside information provided by a CIA agent in Vienna.

Is Celia a traitor? And if so, does Henry have what it takes to pull the trigger on the woman he still loves?

Jonathan Pryce in All the Old Knives

Adapted by Olen Steinhauer from his own novel, and directed by Janus Metz, All the Old Knives owes a debt to John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as Henry sets about discovering the identity of the CIA ‘mole’, although Steinhauer’s tale is as much a love story as it is a spy thriller.

Flashing back and forth from the present to 2012, the movie delivers on both counts: Pine is hardboiled and soft-centred as the spy who loved her, while Newton is terrific as the woman who has more secrets to protect than Henry can conceive.

(Amazon Prime)