The Big Picture
The Sympathizer
is a fascinating adaptation of its source material, blending black comedy with satire in a tragic yet compelling way.- Legendary Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook spearheads the series, promising a prestigious quality with a star-studded cast and engaging storytelling.
- Robert Downey Jr. shines in a transformative role, while Hoa Xuande's outstanding performance as the Captain anchors the series as a future television classic.
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer is remarkable. It’s a scathing satire on racial identity and American imperialism, as well as a pulse-pounding conspiracy thriller. Very few books can balance such bleak subject matter with humor, but Nguyen did just that with his first work of fiction. That said, those who have read the novel will know it’d be extremely tough to adapt to the screen, particularly for a global audience. It's an unapologetically political work, with a narrator who is a walking, talking contradiction of himself and has a tendency to go off on long tangents.
That's why so many breathed a heavy sigh of relief when it was announced that legendary Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook would be spearheading the adaptation as a limited series for HBO and A24. Paired with an excellent cast of newcomers, recognizable faces, and recent Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. making his return to television for the first time in over two decades, The Sympathizer has all the hallmarks of the kind of prestige television that HBO has long thrived at.
The Sympathizer
Near the end of the Vietnam War, a plant who was embedded in the South Vietnam army flees to the United States and takes up residence in a refugee community, where he continues to secretly spy and report back to the Viet Cong.
- Release Date
- April 14, 2024
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr. , Kieu Chinh , VyVy Nguyen , Kayli Tran , Evan Shafran , Sandra Oh
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Seasons
- 1
- Characters By
- Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Distributor
- HBO, HBOMax
- Producer
- Karen Wacker
- Production Company
- A24, Rhombus Media, Team Downey, Moho Film, Cinetic Media
- Story By
- Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Writers
- Don McKellar , Viet Thanh Nguyen
What Is ‘The Sympathizer’ About?
The Sympathizer opens with our unnamed narrator/protagonist, nicknamed the Captain (Hoa Xuande), being held captive in a Viet Cong Communist re-education center. We quickly learn that the Captain is a man of mystery. He’s a North Vietnamese plant in the South Vietnamese army, where he serves as right-hand man to the General (Toan Le), the chief of South Vietnam’s National Police. The Captain is of mixed race; his mother is Vietnamese and his father is a white man who abandoned them both. Because of this, the Captain has been labeled as a “bastard” by the Vietnamese while still being called ethnic slurs by Americans. He constantly finds himself shifting loyalties, often feeding false information to the General and his CIA ally, Claude (Downey), and offering real details to his childhood best friend and blood brother Man (Duy Nguyễn), a Viet Cong official.
Amid the fall of Saigon, the Captain flees to America alongside his other best friend/blood brother Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) and the General. The U.S. isn’t new territory for the Captain, since he studied as an exchange student a few years prior, and is trusted to help the South Vietnamese refugees adapt to their new home. In the meantime, he continues to spy on those who trust him most, reporting back to Man. The Captain also finds himself dueling with a Francis Ford Coppola-like auteur (Downey), falling in love with his older colleague, Ms. Mori (Sandra Oh), and coming face-to-face with some seedy local politicians.
‘The Sympathizer’ Is a Faithful Adaptation of the Source Material
As far as adaptations go, The Sympathizer faithfully captures the spirit of the novel, playing with black comedy and leaning heavily into satire while telling a story that is as complicated as it is tragic. Mining morbid laughs out of uncomfortable and often dire situations is not new territory for a filmmaker like Park, who directs the first three episodes with veracity and energy. The subject matter at hand is increasingly bleak, yet the series flows at such a rapid pace that the 60-minute episodes seem much shorter. A sense of irony and self-deprecation also looms over the series, as The Sympathizer often playfully toys with the often belittled trope of freeze-frame narration, complete with a rewinding sound and a voice-over proclaiming, “You’re probably wondering how I got here.” As cheesy as it is in other TV shows and movies, the amount of self-awareness present makes it clear that it's all a creative choice.
The Sympathizer's remaining episodes, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Marc Munden, allow the filmmakers to bring their own stylistic choices to the series. Meirelles’ rapid, almost chaotic editing (which can also currently be seen in the Apple TV+ series Sugar) is fully present in Episode 4, as the Captain travels to a set for a film that bears resemblance to many classic Vietnam War movies. Meanwhile, Munden brings a more dreamlike lens to the show — particularly in the final episode, which brings the audience back to the series’ opening scene at a “re-education” camp.
While the fast pace of The Sympathizer does make the series all the more entertaining, it sometimes leads to some of the characters and plotlines feeling underdeveloped. The Captain’s relationship with Lana (Vy Le), the rebellious daughter of the General, is particularly glossed over by the show’s end. It’s a complaint that's almost secondary, as, much like its source material,The Sympathizer is told completely through the eyes of the Captain. We aren’t supposed to trust him in the first place, and neither are those around him.
Robert Downey Jr. Embraces His Inner Character Actor in ‘The Sympathizer’
While Xuande is The Sympathizer's main character, the biggest and most noticeable name on the cast list is Downey. After spending the last decade and a half playing Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor has been given the chance to once again prove that he’s much more than Tony Stark, especially after coming off his recent Oscar win for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.
At times,Downey’s multiple parts in The Sympathizer feel like an extension of his role in the recent Best Picture winner. Not only does he play nearly every white male character of power, symbolizing how many American institutions of power overlap, but he does so by transforming himself constantly. While Downey's role as the CIA agent Claude is his most substantial in the series, he still shines every time he pops up, no matter what character he is playing. It’s more than just him being doused in makeup or doing different over-the-top voices and accents; it's the fact that he completely changes the way he carries himself each time he’s on-screen. Downey's not unrecognizable because he looks physically different, he’s unrecognizable because he transcends just about every expectation we have of him as an actor.
However, The Sympathizerwouldn’t be nearly as effective as it is without Xuande’s outstanding performance as the Captain. He has all the makings of a true star, with his character as charismatic and relatable as he is mysterious. While he may not be playing as many characters as Downey is on-screen, that doesn’t render his role any less of a challenge, as someone who is repeatedly changing his morality. Xuande walks a fine line between playing the Captain confident in some situations and insecure in others, and never once exaggerating the two. The same can be said for the rest of the series’ stacked ensemble, with Khan, Le, Nguyễn, and Oh all delivering exceptional work. Alan Trong is another major highlight as Captain’s former college rival Sonny, a character that is easy to love to hate.
There is a certain prestige quality to The Sympathizer that distinguishes it from most other current series, alongside its willingness to challenge viewers with complicated characters and stories.It’s that same fearlessness that many HBO original series successfully captured in the late 2000s, continuing throughout the next decade of titles. To put it simply, The Sympathizer is a future television classic.
The Sympathizer
Review
Park Chan-wook's latest series, The Sympathizer, is a fantastic adaptation of its already great source material.
- Park Chan-wook, Fernando Meirelles, and Marc Munden bring their distinct directorial flair to their respective episodes.
- Robert Downey Jr and Hoa Xuande give outstanding performances as increasingly complex characters.
- The series flies by, with each episode's 60-minute runtime feeling much shorter.
- Certain storylines feel underdeveloped due to the show's energetic nature and pacing.
The Sympathizer premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, April 14.
Watch on Max
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