(Newser)
– Benedict Cumberbatch stars as an English salesman recruited by British and American intelligence services to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War in The Courier, based on the true story of one Greville Wynne. The film was released on Friday, which aired at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival under the title Ironbark—It has an 80% rating from critics of Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s what they’re saying:
- “The Courier gives Cumberbatch another substantial role, and the actor fits in perfectly, “presenting a” meticulous performance, “writes Gary M. Kramer in Salon. He would like there to be more focus on Oleg Penkovsky, the Soviet agent who uses Wynne to transport intelligence to the West, played by a “solid” Merab Ninidze. Although Kramer criticizes the “silent” nature of the film, “the bromance that develops between Greville and Penkovsky is engaging.”
- “The Cuban missile crisis may loom deep, but we hardly feel its threat”, as director Dominic Cooke “is unable to generate tension or simply chooses not to do so,” writes Jeannette Catsoulis in New York Times. Unfortunately, the film “stubbornly resists engaging or affecting us until it’s almost over,” she writes. “By now, though, you must have fallen asleep.”
- Mick LaSalle, however, does not appear to have slept at all. “As the pressures on Wynne increase and the missions become more dangerous, the spectacle of this common man trying to be safe becomes fascinating,” he writes in San Francisco Chronicle, applauding Cumberbatch’s “hard work”. He adds: “Tom O’Connor’s script hits all the right notes, and Dominic Cooke’s direction brings unspoken subtleties of the characters and their interactions.”
- Ann Hornaday argues that “the film’s modesty and carefully managed ambitions define its strength at a time when these films are scarcer each day.” It’s “huge fun in its first hour and a half, while Cumberbatch makes the most of his good-natured character” before a darker change that “is not always as graceful as what happened before.” Still, it’s a “good” film, Hornaday concludes in Washington Post.
(Read more movie review stories.)