With a clumsy flashback structure, The Operative never quite reaches a full boil, coming off - like its heroine - as an entity without a country

A solidly crafted if forgettable espionage thriller.

A serviceable but not stylish filmmaker, Adler shoots office spaces and restaurants in a blandly shadowy style redolent of peak TV.

The storytelling also becomes a little muddled in the closing stretch, although the weapons-smuggling trip to the Turkish border is the pick of several tense set-pieces.