Salting the Battlefield (2014)

SALTING THE BATTLEFIELD  (2014) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: David Hare
    Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes,
    Judy Davis, Rupert Graves, Olivia Williams, 
    Felicity Jones, Ewen Bremner, Saskia Reeves
The last chapter in David Hare's espionage trilogy starts out with rogue agent Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) on the run and trying to leak enough information to the press to bring down the prime minister (Ralph Fiennes). Others with a hand in the outcome include Johnny's partner and fellow fugitive Margot Tyrell (Helena Bonham Carter), the deputy prime minister (Saskia Reeves), a newspaper editor (Olivia Williams) and Johnny's old boss at MI5 (Judy Davis). The storytelling's complex and once again it's the writing and the performances that carry it. The ending's a sort of stalemate in which the positions of the players have shifted, but all remain somewhere in play. Nobody triumphs completely, but nobody loses everything, either. It's a dirty deal, but in this game there's no other kind, and they know that. John Le Carré would approve.