''Rogue Agent'' is a 2022 British

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

drama thriller film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

directed by Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn in their feature length debut, from a screenplay the pair co-wrote with Michael Bronner based on the unpublished article "Chasing Agent Freegard" by Michael Bronner. James Norton portrays Robert Hendy-Freegard, a conman who tricked and convinced several people that he was an

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

agent.

Gemma Arterton Gemma Christina Arterton (born 2 February 1986) is an English actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost'' at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy '' St Trinian's'' ...

also stars as the person who brought him down, with additional cast members including

Shazad Latif Shazad Latif (born Iqbal Amin; 8 July 1988) is a British actor, who starred as Tariq Masood in the BBC TV series '' Spooks'', Clem Fandango on '' Toast of London'', and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in ''Penny Dreadful''. In 2017, he was cast as Chi ...

, Marisa Abela,

Edwina Findley Edwina Findley, also known as Edwina Findley Dickerson, is an American actress. In 2014, Findley began starring as one of lead characters in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, '' If Loving You Is Wrong''. Findley is also known for her recu ...

and

Julian Barratt Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe along ...

. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 27 July 2022 on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

Premise

The film is based on Robert Hendy-Freegard, who masqueraded as an

agent and fooled several people into going underground for fear of assassination by the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

Cast

* James Norton as Robert Freegard *

as Alice Archer * Marisa Abela as Sophie Jones *

Sarah Goldberg Sarah Goldberg (born May 31, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Sally Reed in the HBO dark comedy series '' Barry'' (2018–2023), which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporti ...

as Jenny Jackson *

as Sonny Chandra *

Jimmy Akingbola James Olatokunbo Akingbola (born 7 April 1978) is an English television, theatre and film actor. Early life Jimmy Akingbola was born in London to parents of the Yoruba tribe who had emigrated from Nigeria. In 1996, Akingbola started at the ...

as Andrew *

Freya Mavor Freya Mavor (born 13 August 1993) is a Scottish actress and model. She is best known for her roles as Mini McGuinness in the E4 teen drama '' Skins'' and Daria Greenock in the HBO finance drama series ''Industry''. Early life Mavor was born i ...

as Mae Hansen *

as Special Agent Sandy Harland *

as Phil

Production

On 22 January 2019, it was announced that James Norton would star in ''Chasing Agent Freegard'', as one of three films produced between Great Point Media and The Development Partnership, with Norton producing through his own production company Rabbit Track Pictures. By June 2020, Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn were attached to co-direct the feature from a screenplay by Michael Bronner. In May 2021, it was reported that Night Train Media would also finance the film, then retitled ''Freegard'', and that

, Marisa Abela,

and

had joined the cast. Filming commenced in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 31 May 2021. Filming took place at Dover Castle and Dover Lighthouse. That July,

, Rob Malone, Philip Wright,

Michael Fenton Stevens Michael Fenton Stevens (born 12 February 1958) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for being a founder member of The Hee Bee Gee Bees and the voice behind the ''Spitting Image'' 1986 number 1 hit "The Chicken Song". He also starred ...

and

Charlotte Avery Charlotte Avery is a British actress. She has a son with Australian actor Craig McLachlan, and two other children. She played Tina Stewart in '' EastEnders'' in 2005, and also played a minor character in 1996. Avery appeared in a National Theat ...

were added to the cast. According to ''

Variety Insight ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'', the film's budget is less than $10 million. After six weeks, Lawn announced that principal photography had concluded on 12 July 2021. The film was later retitled again to ''Rogue Agent''.

Release

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 27 July 2022 on Netflix. In the United States, the film was released in cinemas by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...

and on streaming on

AMC+ AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

on 12 August 2022.

Reception

On the

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film received a 73% approval rating, based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads, "Even if it isn't as engaging as the real-life story that inspired it, ''Rogue Agent'' remains a well-acted and appealingly twisty suspense thriller." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film received a score of 61 out of 100, based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{AllMovie title 2022 crime drama films 2020s English-language films 2020s British films 2022 directorial debut films 2022 films British action films British crime films British thriller films Crime films based on actual events Films based on real people Films shot in London IFC Films films