The Courier

It’s a simple premise, and it’s not really a part of Cold War movies or even spy movies: Learning that we are fundamentally the same in spite of political difference is the take that’s most compelling in Dominic Cooke’s enjoyable espionage drama.

British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch—on fine form) was recruited in 1960 by the British Intelligence Services to make contact with Oleg Pentovsky (Merab Ninidze), who as we’ve seen is doubting the sanity of Khrushchev and thinking about ways to avert nuclear war—even as he sees how traitors are dealt with.

The movie is at its best when Pentovsky and Wynne are together. They seem to match each other from their separate world-views and it’s not long before Wynne is questioning the ruthless amorality of MI6, with Angus Wright playing spy-handler Dickie Francis with joyful stiff-upper lip. His CIA aide (Rachel Brosnahan) is more passionate and possibly has the most conventional cinematic moments: in one scene she explains how the four-minute warning is not going to work out well for him because he will not be able to get to his wife and son in time. But then the four-minute warning would not have been good for anyone, and you’re with Wynne when he wonders out loud and crossly at how the spooks can be so unmoved by the sacrifice of Pentovsky.

Sheila Wynne is played with the most passion and skill by Jessie Buckley: it really is a great performance of a wife who’s half-trapped in the marriage to a mysterious and seemingly serially duplicitous man. It is all about the kids for the Wynnes and the Pentovsky and it’s when the families meet that the son realises that the ‘enemy’ is the political system not the wider population. It was JFK who said “No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue” which is the same point, and he goes on to make clear that the differences that divided the world are surmountable, but the similarities are that “…we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.” Cooke said that the original version of the film had more of the American politics but that this was removed as it distracted focus from the two players in the espionage. There are plenty of other movies that deal with the topic but this one links the spy craft of a Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with the broader political view of the era: very difficult to tie down without considering Kennedy’s reputation as a whole, and particularly considering his administration’s intervention in Cuba.

And regardless of what MI6 figures may have made of Oleg Pentovsky (they didn’t rate him as an asset) the film successfully throws off the peril of getting mired in a political viewpoint by focusing on the men and their families. Those were the stakes for them and, you’ve got to conclude, pretty much everyone else interested in continued peace. The story does end up focusing on only one of the two men—and that seems like a bit of a shame.

It’s fine to compare this movie to the actual history: no doubt there are some fabricated sequences but Cumberbatch’s performance as he takes down the whole notion of leaving men to be tortured and murdered is quite disgusting. We may be way beyond the threat of nuclear annihilation but we can get behind the notion of a closed off organisation that believes it’s doing the right thing and doesn’t ever need to change. It would be awful if it turned out that the Cold War persisted just because the players in it had nothing else to do. It was a human tragedy for many and that is something that this film has at its heart.

I was lucky enough to be able to watch a preview of this movie and then talk to Dominic Cooper. This was a slightly scary experience, and I have a lot of respect both for film journalists who can crystallise their thoughts on a film and produce questions really quickly as well as being engaging and entertaining in the process. Maybe I could get better at it with practice!