TIFF 2025: The Secret Agent Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Secret Agent made a splash, earning a Best Actor prize for its star, Wagner Moura, as well as a Best Director prize for its director (and writer), Kleber Mendonça Filho, among other nominations. Picked up by a successful distributor as of late in Neon and given a prime awards-friendly release date, the film certainly has all the makings of one that will be in the conversation once awards are handed out next year. To his credit, the film may be long, clocking in at over 2.5 hours, but it thrives of the strength of the effortless charisma of Moura. While not without its flaws, he is captivating to watch in this Brazilian crime thriller about a man on the run from the rampant greed and corruption of the time, trying to escape his troubled past in the midst of the Carnival. Set in 1977 Brazil, Marcelo Alves (Moura) is a technology expert who found himself on the run, looking to find refuge and reunite with his son. However, no place was truly safe from the grip of the forces attempting to silence him for good.

With a title such as The Secret Agent comes expectations, the story delivers the kind of things one would expect, double identities and assassinations over the course of a narrative, though convoluted, does a decent job at keeping audiences on the edge of their seats after every twist and turn. Through Marcel’s journey, the film uses his experience as a victim of a corrupt system to shine a light on the military dictatorship regime and the corporations that consistently exploited the Brazilian people. Finding himself in Recife (also the hometown of Mendonça Filho), a series of strange events began to occur (going on a tangent at times) as the walls began to close in. Above all else, Marcelo’s priority was his son Fernando, having entrusted his care to his in-laws in Recife to take his care, following the death of his wife. Ready to get him out of the country, that goal proved to be difficult as the target on him grew. As the stakes rose, Mendonça Filho eventually pulls the wool back, revealing the true nature of the film, evolving into more of a contemplative piece about the history of Brazil and the notion of family. While that choice offers an interesting overall perspective, it fails to develop it in more of a meaningful way.

As mentioned, the best part of the film is Moura’s uber-charismatic performance as Marcelo. Despite what the title suggests, an everyman faced with extraordinary circumstances, he is the picture of calm under pressure. Captivating from start to finish, he shows some vulnerability as a man who didn’t always have all the answers. If anything, the film would have benefitted from more of Marcelo’s backstory, rather than leaning on its surplus of subplots, but its flaws lay around the edges more than anything else.

In the end, The Secret Agent sees a captivating performance from Wagner Moura lead a flawed yet gripping period political thriller that just misses the landing.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.