The Courier
This latest spy thriller based on a true story and set in the Cold War of the 1960s is an earnest and tightly constructed tale of interwoven destinies. In 1962, MI6, the British equivalent of the CIA recruited an inexperienced civilian machinery salesman, Greville Wynn, (Benedict Cumberbatch) to enter the USSR under the guise of business and retrieve information from a high-level Russian intelligence official, Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). The intel was being leaked with the hope that the Cuban Missile Crisis would not devolve into a global disaster. Both Cumberbatch and Ninidze are in excellent form as the two unlikely friends who must navigate the perilous and duplicitous world of communist Russia. Ninidze gives an Oscar-caliber performance never letting the audience forget for a moment the intense duality Penkovsky had to endure living as a double agent. The always reliable Cumberbatch gives an equally committed performance as he transforms from a portly, middle-aged businessman giddy with the idea of playing a spy into a tortured prisoner of the Gulag. He clearly went through a monumental body change to carry out the transformation.
British director, Dominic Cooke (The Hollow Crown) is best known for his television and theatrical work at the Royal Court Theatre. His attention to character building and plot development elevated the film from being just another gun-shooting spy thriller into a complex human story of two men from different worlds thrown into an intense political bonfire. The addition of Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as the American CIA agent in charge of the intel exchange and Jessie Buckley (Fargo) as Greville’s wife, Sheila, broaden the emotional range of the story to include the emotional toll of working in the cold and lethal field of intel and the price families pay to protect their homelands.
Brosnahan’s role as CIA agent, Emily Donovan, is equally compelling in that she is often the coldest manipulator in the situation and yet has the hardest time coping with grief over the human sacrifice that intelligence work sometimes requires. Cooke deftly alludes to the struggles a top-level female agent in the CIA of the 1960s had to endure without stopping the story and beating the audience over the head with it. It was telling and impactful without becoming a diatribe or a sermon.
Jessie Buckley’s Sheila Wynn carries a subplot of Wynn’s strained marriage beautifully with enough emotional punch that it can be intertwined with the intensity of the espionage plotline and never bogs down the pace of the film. Buckley’s scene with Cumberbatch as the couple reunite in prison is painfully hard to watch for all the right reasons.
Cooke leans heavily into the relationship between Wynn and Penkovsky mining it for drama and intrigue as the two men exchange glances into each other’s lives to discover how much more alike they are than different. A timely message for a culturally divided time. The film’s focus is more on the personal risk each man is taking than on the clever exchange of data under the eyes of the KGB.
The result is a gripping story of humanity set in front of the backdrop of an international crisis. Brilliantly acted and deftly director, “The Courier” is a must-see for those who like their history retold with an emphasis on the people most impacted by the events. Is this a film for the whole family? No, this one is for adults and older teens who want to discuss self-sacrifice and putting the needs of the many over your own. There’s too much content here for children to have to sift through to get to the heart of the message.
Content Overview
Language: The f-word is used once as well a S---
Violent Content: Wynne is beaten in prison. He is tortured will bad food and mental deprivation. A strained Wynne verbally berates his young son in an angry moment calling him “dense”.
Sexual Content: Husband and wife kiss passionately (sex is implied). A woman refers to her husband as “energetic” in bed. A past affair is referenced. Wynne is forced to strip naked in prison we see his backside.
Objectionable Content: Tobacco and alcohol use is common throughout the film.
