The Spy and the Dullard

Ben McKenna and Louis Bernard stand at opposite sides of a distorted mirror.  While Ben is bland, uninteresting and generally predictable, the Frenchman represents all that is dapper, charming and intriguing.  Notice their positions in this still. While Ben fixes his boring tie and boring suit, Bernard leans jauntily and presumably sips brandy. The mirror could not be murkier.

When Ben hears Bernard’s dying secret, though, he steps through the looking glass into the latter’s world of espionage and assassination.  Also, the unnamed Moroccan assassin gives the viewer a sense on unease at the asymmetry and general ugliness of his own visage.  Truly, here is a character that is a distorted mirror of himself, with no equal and no audience sympathy. He has no reflection in any of the other characters. He is static, taciturn and generally unlikable.