The Agent

As a piece of small-scale British filmmaking it's an interesting enough diversion.

A quite unsexy subject handled quite adeptly, with pretty decent performances.

Beck does his best, and the dialogue crackles pleasantly, but he's a caricature: a lying, cheating smear of ordure who doesn't even like books. But his sin is worse than that - it's fiction's biggest. He's boring.

Lesley Manning's film never shakes off its theatrical roots but still manages to be sharp, funny and engrossing.