2019 HALLE: Federer Wins 10th Halle Title, 102nd ATP

As predicted, Roger Federer won his 10th title in Halle, Germany, by defeating David Goffin. The score was 7-6(2) 6-1 and it was the 102nd ATP tour of Federer's storied career and 19th career grass court title (the most ever). Amazingly, Federer has been in 15 (consecutive!) semifinals at Halle and 13 finals, and now has a 10-3 record at that stage of the tournament. His 10 titles have come at the expense of 10 different opponents and he is now the second man to win a tournament more than 10 times. Rafael Nadal has won the French Open 12 times and Monte Carlo and Barcelona 11 times. Federer is a mere 7 titles behind the all-time career record of 109 titles set by Jimmy Connors and is the first player on the ATP tour to win 3 titles in 2019.

Weekend Tennis: Grass Finals Set: Federer-Goffin, Lopez-Simon, Barty-Georges, Kenin-Bencic (Birmingham)

The grass court season (which is basically a month long) is in full swing. Wimbledon starts July 1 but nutil then there's a fair number of warm-up tournaments going on, generally in Europe. This weekend there are finals in London (Queen's Club), Birmingham, Halle and Mallorca.

HALLE: FEDERER FACES DAVID GOFFIN IN RECORD THIRTEENTH FINAL
Roger Federer is into his thirteenth final in Halle, Germany, where he has a 9-3 record, after defeating Pierre-Hughes Herbert in the semifinals. The person who will try to prevent the 20-time major champion from winning his 10th Halle crown is Belgian David Goffin, who stopped the amazing win streak of Matteo Berretini (who won Stuttgart last week) in his semifinal. Federer is 7-1 against Goffin and is the favorite in this match. My Pick: Federer.

LONDON: LOPEZ FACES SIMON IN SINGLES FINAL, IN DOUBLES FINAL WITH MURRAY
There are some great stories at the 2019 edition of the Queen's Club tournament, Andy Murray, with a brand-new metal hip is into the doubles final with partner Feliciano Lopez in his very first tournament after a 5 month layoff following hip replacement surgery. Murray has announced he will play Wimbledon doubles with Pierre-Hughes Herbert and that he is actively looking for a mixed doubles partner (Ash Barty turned him down). 37-year-old Lopez is an amazing story himself, having reached the final of Queen's Club for the 3rd time by defeating someone less than half his age, the 18-year-old Canadian phenom Felix Auger-Aliassime (who defeated Dimitrov, Kyrgios and Tsitsipas in 24 hours) in 3 sets 6-7(3) 6-3 6-3. There Lopez will face Gilles Simon, who has been wearing down his opponents with his metronomic style of play. Every match Simon played this week have gone the distance and some have been well over 3 hours. Lopez holds a 5-2 advantage and has won every meeting the two have had on grass. My Pick: Lopez.

BIRMINGHAM: BARTY FACES DOUBLES PARTNER GOERGES FOR TITLE AND WORLD #1 RANKING
2019 French Open champion Ash Barty is a handful of points behind World #1 Naomi Osaka in the rankings but if she wins her next match the Australian will be the new World #1 on Monday. To do that she has to continue playing well on her best surface, by beating her doubles partner Julia Georges (who is now slouch on grass herself, having reached the 2018 Wimbledon semifinals). The two have an even head-to-head but Goerges beat Barty at this very tournament last year. The two were scheduled to play their doubles final together but Barty pulled out with an "injury" presumably demonstrating hos important she's taking this match. My Pick: Barty.

MALLORCA: KENIN FACES BENCIC IN SURPRISE FINAL
This Bencic-Kenin final is not a final showdown anyone expected. Anastasija Sevastova had made the final in Mallorca 3 consecutive years (winning in 2017) but American Sonia Kenin ended that streak in the semifinals. Reigning Wimbledon champ Angelique Kerber has looked sharp on grass all week (starting with an imperious dismissal of Maria Sharapova) but lost to the always-dangerous Belinda Bencic. The two have never met before so I would give the edge to the 22-year-old Swiss over the 20-year-old American. My Pick: Bencic.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Stefanie Graf Turns 50!

Stefanie Graf, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles championships (one less than Serena Williams) turns 50 years old today.

Happy Birthday, Steffi!

GRAPHIC: Demographics of Immigrant Fraction Of United States Has Varied Over Time

This is an interesting graphic which shows the demographics of the non-native population of the United States has varied over time. Axios summarizes the changes over time thusly:

• For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the vast majority of immigrants came from Western and Northern Europe. The Irish fled famine, the Germans fled political instability, and Italians primarily wanted better economic opportunity.
• The 1965 act ended a program that allowed Mexicans to work on U.S. farms but remain residents of Mexico. That changed the nature of immigration from Mexico and from Central America "to primarily unauthorized," Batalova says.
• In 1986, the U.S. gave legal status to almost 3 million undocumented immigrants — an overwhelming majority of them from Mexico. These new green card holders could then sponsor additional family members.
• There has been a surge of Central American asylum seekers in the U.S. over the past several years as political chaos, poverty and violence have ravaged many of those nations.
• New laws also opened the door to immigration from Asia — initially from India and Taiwan, and later China.
• Following the Vietnam War, there was an influx of Vietnamese people and other citizens of the region who fled to the U.S. as refugees.
• Most recently, there's been a wave of immigration from African countries that began in the 1990s and 2000s for a wide variety of economic, political and humanitarian reasons.

hat/tip: Axios

TENNIS TUESDAY: Federer Returns To #1; Venus Turns 38, Murray Is Back; Bartoli Retires (Again)

FEDERER RETURNS TO #1 WHILE WINNING 98TH CAREER TITLE
Roger Federer won his 98th career ATP tour title in Stuttgart by defeating Milos Raonic in straight sets. Federer is now the oldest player in the Top 100 on the ATP tour, and he is at #1! However, he has to win Halley for a record 10th time (defending his 2017 title win here) in order to remain #1 although one would think that Federer with his 8 titles will be seeded #1 at Wimbledon over Nadal with his 2 titles despite whatever the ranking order is at the time.

MURRAY RETURNS TO ATP TOUR IN QUEEN CLUB TO FACE KYRGIOS ROUND ONE
Former World #1 Andy Murray makes his return to the ATP tour after a 342-day absence in which he had hip surgery and approximately 6 months of rehab. His last match was a quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon to Sam Querrey; his first match back will also be on grass. It is at Queen's Club where he is a 5-time champion. UPDATE: Murray lost to Nick Kyrgios in a tough 3-set match 2-6 7-6(4) 7-5 and to my eyes looked like he was limping for part of the match.

VENUS TURNED 38 ON JUNE  17
7-time major champion Venus Williams turned 38 on Sunday. The current World #9 has not indicated that she intends to leave the WTA tour any time soon even though she has been playing tennis professionally since age 14(!)

BARTOLI GIVES UP ON RETURN TO WTA TOUR
The 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has retired from the WTA Tour for the second time. After returning a few weeks after winning her first and only major title in 2013, Bartoli attempted a comeback to the tour last year, but struggled with injuries almost immediately and did not make into the main draw of any of the major tournaments.

2018 STUTTGART: Federer Wins 98th Title (Defeating Raonic), Will Return To World #1

Roger Federer resumed his presence on the ATP tour as the grass season began with a first-ever title in Stuttgart. In two consecutive rounds, Federer defeated Nick Kyrgios (in the semifinal) and Milos Raonic (in the final).

Both of these matches were quite significant. The 6-7(2) 6-2 7-6(5) win over Kyrgios resulted in a return to the top of the ATP rankings by Federer. For the third time in three meetings their match was decided by a 3rd set tiebreak, this time won by Federer; he now leads the head-to-head 2-1.

The final was also significant, and was a 6-4 7-6(3) win, extending Federer's win streak on grass to 16 (including wins at Halle and Wimbledon in 2017). It was Federer's 148th ATP tour final, and he now has a 98-50 record, with an 18-6 record in grass finals. This was Federer's 98th final win (65 of which he won in straight sets) and 3rd title of the year. The all-time record is held by Jimmy Connors at 109. Can Federer reach or exceed this number? It's more likely now than it was last week.

Happy 241st Birthday, Carl Friedrich Gauss!

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Carl Friedrich Gauss is one of the most important mathematicians of all time. Today, April 30th, is the 241st anniversary of his birth, and Google's Doodle is recognizing that fact. Some of the reasons why Gauss is known as the "Prince of Mathematicians" (in Latin princeps mathematicorum);

• Proved the fundamental theorem of algebra (in his Phd thesis!)
• Proved that a 17-sided polygon (the heptadecagon) coudl be created with compass and straigh-edge.
• Invented the Diiscrete Fourier Transform (160 years before Cooley and Tukey)
• Proved Fermat's Last Theorem (for n=3 and n=5)
• Computed the sum of the 100 positive integers (at age 5!)
• The normal distribution is also known as the Gaussian distribution

And many, many more...

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Openly Gay Richard Grenell Confirmed By Senate To Become U.S. Ambassador To Germany

Richard Grenell has been confirmed by a vote of 56-42 in the United States Senate to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Germany, one day before Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Washington, D.C. for bilateral talks with the Trump administration. Most Democrats voted against the nomination, with most Republicans voting infavor, including known homophobes such as

The Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo said on Fox News:

 For the first time in history, an openly gay ambassador was not confirmed “in spite of” Republicans, or simply “with Republican support.” Grenell is now our ambassador to Germany because of Republican support.

And now the Trump administration (and its supporters) will use the existence of an openly gay ambassador to a high profile country as an example that Republicans are no longer anti-gay, all the while the Trump administration continues to be virulently anti-LGBT in multiple ways.

Germany's Marriage Equality Law Is Now In Effect!

Germany's equal marriage law, called "marriage for all" went into effect on yesterday. It was passed on June 30 by a vote of 393-226 in the German parliament when Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition agreed to allow a free vote on the matter, even though she herself voted against the measure. The bill was signed into law by the German president in late July.

The first couple to be married under the legislation was a gay male couple from Berlin named Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende who had been together for 38 years.

The fact that Germany now has marriage equality was one reason my husband I decided to finally visit Berlin in August for our 9th wedding anniversary.

Hat/tip to the Washington Blade.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Federer, Lopez, Kvitova, Win On Grass; Djokovic-Agassi Duo Set For Wimby; McEnroe Puts Foot In Mouth (Again)

GRASS COURT SEASON CONTINUES WITH FEDERER, KVITOVA, LOPEZ WINNING TITLES
The 2017 grass court season (all 3 weeks of it!) continued into its 2nd week and ended with some people with strong grass court credentials doing quite well. 7-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer reached his 11th final at Halle and won his 9th title, defeating Sacha Zverev in two humiliating sets 6-1 6-3. A 2-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, playing in only her second tournament after suffering a violent home invasion which led to her left hand being stabbed with a knife and a 6-month hiatus from tennis. Kvitova defeated Ash Barty in the finals of Birmingham 4-6 6-3, 6-2. However, the performance of the week was provided by 35-year-old Spanish hunk Feliciano Lopez, who saved match points in not one but two different contests on the way to  winning the Queen's Club tournament. The best was saved for last, with Lopez beating 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(8) in dramatic fashion. 3 year ago, Lopez had lost the final to Grigor Dimitrov after holding a match point.

AGASSI TO RETURN TO COACH DJOKOVIC AGAIN, THIS TIME AT WIMBLEDON
And they said it wouldn't last. 8-time major champion Andre Agassi will return to the coaching box for the second consecutive major tournament to provide advice and support to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, it was announced this week. And this time Agassi will be able to be in attendance for all 7 matches, if the 3-time Wimbledon champion gets that far. (Djokovic lost in the 3rd round against Sam Querrey last year, signalling a sharp change of fortune for someone who at the time was the reigning champion of all 4 major tournaments.)

MCENROE ATTEMPTS TO SELL BOOKS BY DENIGRATING SERENA WILLIAMS
John Mcenroe has a new edition of his memoir coming out and is doing a media tour. Unfortunately, he was asked about Serena Williams by NPR and while he acknowledged that she is "no question" the "best female player ever" he also raised hackles by saying this: "Well because if she was in, if she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world." Lots of Serena fans thought this was disrespectful, although Serena herself has said that men's tennis and women's tennis are completely different sports, she hit back at McEnrroe by saying "Dear John, I adore and respect you but please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based." I think htat's the equivalent of saying "Bless your heart" in the South!

SHOCK! Federer Loses Grass Comeback Match To Haas; Now 19-2 IN 2017

Roger Federer played his first match since winning the Miami Open in early April on grass in Stuttgart against his good friend, 39-year-old Tommy Haas. Since, Federer is 35, this was the oldest combined ages of two players on the WTA tour since 1982. For the second time this year, Federer had a match point but ended up losing to Haas 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-4.

After skipping the entire clay court season and seeing Rafael Nadal dominate it and win his 10th French Open, this could not have been the way that Federer hoped to begin the blink-and-you'll-miss-it grass court season this summer.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Angelique Kerber Becomes WTA World #1

Angelique Kerber will become the World #1 female tennis player on Monday September 12 when the new WTA rankings are released. Because Serena Williams gained no ranking points in this year's U.S. Open, losing in the semifinals two years in a row, while Kerber improved her 3rd round defeat and is in the final, where she will play Karolina Pliskova on Saturday night.

Kerber is the second German player, after the great Steffi Graf to top the WTA rankings and only the third left-handed player (Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles) to do so. She ended Serena's streak of consecutive weeks at #1 at 186, which is exactly the same record number of weeks Graf had achieved.

Of the 24 people who have held the WTA ranking, Kerber, 28, becomes the oldest player to debut at #1. The record for most weeks at #1 is still held by Graf with 377, second is Navratilova with 332 and Wiilliams is 3rd with 306. I am fairly sure Serena can surpass Navratilova's record, but can she get past Steffi's? Time will tell.

2016 WIMBLEDON: Serena Beats Kerber To Win 22nd Major Title (7th Wimbledon)

As I expected, Serena Williams defeated Angelique Kerber 7-5 6-3 to win her 7th Wimbledon title and 22nd major title, tying Steffi Graf's open era record, and cementing her status as the greatest female tennis player of all time. (Technically, Margaret Court has 24 major singles titles, but only 11 of those were in the open era which began in 1968 and 7 of her 13 titles won before 1968 were in her home country of Australia, when not every top player competed in the Australian Open.)

Serena's win today means that she is 22-6 (79%) in major finals; it took her 346 grans slam matches to win 22 major titles, while it took Graf 303. Serena has won 304 grand slam matches (which is second behind Martina Navratilova's 306 grand slam match wins). At age 34, Serena is the oldest major champion ever, Graf won none of her titles over the age of 30, while Serena has won 10 (so far!) Serena won her first title at the age of 17 in 1999, but Graf won 9 of her titles before her 20th birthday.

WOMEN'S FINAL REVIEW

The match was a high quality affair, with both women hitting far more winners than errors. The key weapon in he match was Serena's serve. She had 13 aces, and only faced one break point (which she saved with an ace). From the back of the court, Kerber was superior, and when they got into long rallies the German was often the victor. However, with Serena holding serve relatively easily, most of the action was in Kerber's service games, and eventually the breaks came (in the 12th game of the first set) and the 8th game of the second set. Serena served out the match with 3 unreturnable serves and on championship point hit a duck volley into the open court.

2015 HALLE: Federer Wins 86th Career Title, Record 15th On Grass

As I expected, Roger Federer won his 8th title at Halle by defeating Andreas Seppi in the final 7-6(1) 6-4. It was Federer's 86th career ATP tour title and 15th career  grass court title. He improved to 12-1 over his Italian competitor and is now 15-5 in grass court finals and 86-44 in finals overall. It's the current World #2's fourth title of the year, following wins in Istanbul, Dubai and Brisbane.

Federer becomes the third player in ATP history to win a tournament 8 times. Rafael Nadal has won Roland Garros a record nine times and also has won clay court titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona 8 times each. Guillermo Vilas won his hometown tournament in Buenos Aires 8 times as well. Federer has won Wimbledon 7 times. So far!

2015 HALLE: Federer To Face Seppi; Trying For 8th Title In 10 Finals

Roger Federer survived two tiebreak sets with 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic to win a very tight semifinal while Kei Nishikori retired after losing all but one of the first five games in his match with Andreas Seppi.

So, Federer will face Seppi in his 10th final at Halle, where the Swiss great has won the title a record 7 times already. Federer has a record 14 grass court titles (7 at Wimbledon and 7 at Halle). Federer has a 11-1 head-to-head record against Seppi but he did lose to him at the Australian Open this year in the third round. Federer has previously lost to finals in Halle to Lleyton Hewitt in 2010 and Tommy Haas in 2012 but is the defending champion.

MadProfessah's pick: Federer.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Nadal Wins Grass Title In Germany But Loses In 1st Round At Queens

It's been an up and down few days for Rafael Nadal. Two weeks ago he failed to defend his French Open crown for only the second time in 11 years but he followed that defeat up by winning his first grass court title since he won Wimbledon in July 2010. Nadal defeated Victor Troicki 7-6 6-3 at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart on Sunday.

Sadly for the new ATP #10 player, he was unable to sustain that momentum and on Tuesday he lost (from a break up in the third set!) a close match with Aleksandr Dolgopolov 6-3 6-7(6) 6-4 at the Queen's Club.

Wimbledon starts in just over two weeks, on Monday June 29th.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Djokovic Skips Madrid; Kerber On Clay Hot Streak; Isner Turns 30; Mauresmo On Maternity Leave

Kerber On 11-Match Winning Streak On Clay; Keys, Sharapova, Wozniacki In Her Wake
Building on her win on the green clay of Charleston a few weeks by coming back from 1-4 down in the final set to defeat Madison Keys, German Angelique Kerber has been absolutely on fire during the clay season so far. She defeated the reigning French Open champion on Thursday and then continued her winning ways by coming back from 3-5 down in the final against Caroline Wozniacki to ride the hometown crowd support to snatch the Stuttgart title. This is her 5th career title and she had to defeat two Top 5 players to do it, which she did in two 3-set thrillers.

John Isner Turns 30
John Isner had a big birthday on Sunday, turning thirty years old. The Top American has not made as much an impact in the majors as Andy Roddick but in this era of men's tennis it is very possible for 30-somethings to have success on the tour and hoping that continues with Isner in the next few years.

Djokovic Says Enough Is Enough; Gives Someone Else A Chance To Win Something!
After winning the first three Masters series titles of 2015, World #1 Novak Djokovic has decided to withdraw from next week's Madrid Masters. Since he also didn't play last year he is not losing any ranking points. I'm sure the rest of men's field thanks Nole and wishes him a peaceful week!

Mauresmo Is Pregnant And Taking Time Off From Coaching Andy Murray 
Andy Murray has made an important statement for women's equality in sports by naming former WTA #1 Amelie Mauresmo as his coach. Mauresmo, 35,  announced recently that she is expecting her first child in August, and while she is on maternity leave (an issue which has never come up before for the coach of an elite men's player) she will be replaced (temporarily) by Jonas Bjorkman.

Wawrinka Getting Divorced And Nobody's Happy
Stan Wawrinka had previously separated from his wife (ostensibly in order to focus on his tennis) but later reconciled well before he won his first Grand Slam title in Australia last year. Recently he announced that the two are definitely getting divorced and his wife issued a statement of her own clarifying her side of the story. His results have been spotty in 2015, with the former World #3 now down to #9 in the latest rankings.

Serena Officially 3rd Longest Stay At #1 (Behind Steffi and Martina)
Serena Williams has now been World #1 for 114 weeks in a row, which is third all-time, behind Martina Navratilova's 156 weeks (3 solid years!!) and Steffi Graf's 186 weeks and just 1 week ahead of Chris Evert's 113 weeks. Her current streak is exactly twice as long as her longest previous hold on the #1 ranking at 57 weeks. She has been #1 on 6 different occasions in her career. In her current #1 streak only 8 players have beaten her, but bizarrely Alize Cornet has done so three times!

Both 2014 French Open Champs Lose Clay Matches In Europe

The two best players on clay last year, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, who respectively won the men's and women's 2014 French Open have suffered surprising losses in European red clay tournaments this week.

Sharapova, lost in Stuttgart to Angelique Kerber where she was the defending champion and had a 13-match winning streak. Nadal lost in Barcelona, a tournament he has won 8 times previously. He lost to Fabio Fognini on clay for the second time this year.  (The Italian hottie beat Nadal earlier this year in Brazil.)

Both matches were relatively close, with Nadal losing 6-4, 7-6(6) despite being up a break three(!) times in the second set. Sharapova lost 2-6 7-5 6-1 against Kerber playing inspired defense in front of a partisan crowd of her compatriots.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Godless Children In Berlin Get Their Own Day Off From School (June 21)

Are you jealous of all the religious holidays that god-fearing folks have? Well now comes word from the Friendly Atheist  that at least in Berlin, Germany, godless children have a school holiday of their own! It is June 21st, and the occasion is World Humanist Day.

This is how the Associated Press reported the story:

BERLIN (AP) — Schools in Berlin have recognized World Humanist Day as a holiday on a par with All Saints' Day, Yom Kippur and Eid al-Fitr.The decision means Berlin pupils who subscribe to humanism — a philosophy that rejects the existence of deities — can apply for a day off to celebrate their belief in the same way as Christians, Muslims and Jews do for their holy days.Arik Platzek, a spokesman for Germany's Humanist Association, said Wednesday the decision "is a positive signal and a good example."He says it will be the first sanctioned holiday for humanists in any of Germany's 16 states "and as far as we know worldwide."World Humanist Day was conceived in 1986 and takes place annually on June 21. It often falls on the solstice.

Seems like it might be a good idea to have  a holiday in recognition of the solstice anyway considering how important the Sun is to our existence! Anyway, I think it's cool that atheist kids will have the opportunity to have their (lack of faith) officially recognized by the state in a similar way the state recognizes the faiths of their pers.

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

FILM REVIEW: A Most Wanted Man

The other half and I wanted to see a movie last weekend and so we went to see A Most Wanted Man which is getting excellent reviews (90% rating on rotten tomatoes) and extra attention as one of the last films starring the late Oscar-winning Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A Most Wanted Man is an adaptation of a book by John le Carré, a spy thriller by the same guy who wrote the source material for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Also starring in A Most Wanted Man is Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris), Robin Wright (House of Cards) and Willem Dafoe (The Grand Budapest Hotel). This is not as distinguished a cast as the other le Carré adaptation, which had the likes of Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The later film has a similar "vibe" to the first, which I think is intentional, even if the directors are different. Both films are about the spy trade. While Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was about the hunt for a deep cover double (or triple?) agent in British Intelligence in the 1970s A Most Wanted Man is set in Hamburg, post-9/11. A title card as the movie starts reminds the audience that this is the city in which Mohammed Atta planned the attacks of September 11, 2001. Then we see a gaunt white guy with a very long beard and a large backpack drag himself out of a manhole and approach a series of parked cars.

We next see Hoffman as Gunther Bachmann, apparently part of some kind of German domestic secret intelligence service trying to find the next Mohammed Atta. Bachmann looks like a man who is married to his work, overweight, smoking and drinking but clearly dedicated. It turns out the white guy we saw earlier  draws the attention of Hoffman's group because he is a known Russian-Chechen extremist whose name is Issa. Issa apparently is the son of an infamous Russian general named Karpov and he is in Germany trying to claim his inheritance, which is in a secret numbered account held in a bank run by Dafoe's character, Tommy Brue. McAdam plays a naive asylum attorney named Annabel who brokers the connection between Brue and Issa. Bachmann's team knows all this is happening because they immediately have Issa, Annabel and Tommy all under surveillance.

The regular German domestic security service (equivalent to our FBI) and "the Americans" in the form of a raven-haired Robin Wright show up at this point, very interested in trying to capture Issa and stop whatever he's planning, especially when Brue discovers that Issa's inheritance is in millions of Euro. That could buy a lot of bang.

The interesting thing about the movie is that it raises a lot of questions about terrorism, surveillance, interrogation, loyalty and bureaucracy. It's not clear who the film wants the audience to root for, since even a very good man has a little piece of him that might be very bad, as one terrorist hunter says to another, as they dangle an opportunity for one character to take an action that could most definitely be seen to be supporting the movement of money which could support terrorists. But it is the terrorist hunters who create the opportunity and present it to the attention of the "good guy." Hoffman and his team are very willing to allow circumstances to go further and further along so they can get a better view of the bigger picture, perhaps snare a bigger fish, even though they aren't even sure who (or even if) that bigger fish would be.

There's a lot of nuance in A Most Wanted Man, and that makes it thought-provoking and more than a little unsettling as well. 

Title: A Most Wanted Man.
Director: Anton Corbijn.
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language.
Release Date: July 25, 2014.
Viewing Date: July 27, 2014.

Writing: B+.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: B-.
Impact: B.

Overall Grade: B/B+ (3.16/4.0).