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" Green ’ s account is brief , funny , sardonic ( " the cadaver " ) and understated . Rarely has political theater so enmeshed the sardonic and sincere as when Liebrecht says , " When this is over , the Iraqi people better be the freest fucking people on the face of the earth . A sardonic and foreboding tone underlies the ecstatic passages , contradicting the idea of virtue rewarded and suggesting instead that evil lurks just about everywhere . Jeremy Irons shines in the role of her stage-manager husband , and the story , based on a Somerset Maugham novel , brims with sardonic humor . Images in the film create indelible impressions Lime 's sardonic face suddenly revealed to Harry when light suddenly floods a darkened street ; Lime and Harry 's tense ride above the city in the creaking Prater Wheel ; the frantic chase through Vienna 's sewers ; and Lime 's fingers desperately gripping the sewer grates .