John LeCarre’s spy thriller is brought to the big screen. A British spy (Pierce Brosnan) is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador’s mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor (Geoffrey Rush) with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife (Jamie Lee Curtis), who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Panama Canal. But what the two do is concoct a tremendous fictional tale about former mercenaries who are ready to topple the current government and are willing to work with Britain and the US to do so.

This true-story-based bittersweet drama follows Evelyn Ryan (Julianna Moore) who was a housewife and a devoted mother of 10. Her remarkable ingenuity and an uncommon wit had success at the jingle contests staged by corporations to promote their products. Evelyn had found the way to keep her family together, notwithstanding an alcoholic husband and the other difficult circumstances.