>>471 Riz Ahmed was following in Ben Whishaw's footsteps, because Whishaw originated the part for the BBC miniseries Criminal Justice, and Ben received tons of praise for his performance, including the International Emmy award in 2005. HBO remade the series. I think re-makes never get enough credit, b/c I heard Ahmed was great. Didn't think Tom was wooden as Pine. He was trying to slowly let different colors and layers of emotions bubble under the surface, and that's really hard to accomplish. Esp. for Tom who seems so natural on stage. J Chastain is good at that, and Cate Blanchett is great at it. Thought Laurie was deliciously intense, but was a snarling villain archetype. Coleman was my fave, hands down, esp with her monologue explaining why she was tracking Roper. But unlike Tom, she got to traverse more emotional terrain and also explode with rage, and the Pine spy role was mostly under the surface. Again, haven't seen TPVOJS.