The Courier (2021)

 Score: 3 / 5

British businessman Greville Wynne is surprised to be meeting two rather uptight people for an exclusive lunch. When he finds out one is with MI6 and the other is with the CIA, he seems both amused and bewildered. When they attempt to recruit him to help smuggle secrets out of Russia, he's completely dumbfounded. The year is 1960, and fears are growing about nuclear weapons in communist countries; Wynne is more interested in succeeding in his work to support his wife and son than in frequently flying to Moscow. But the agents are convinced that he, with no ties to the government and the theatricality inherent in salesmanship, is a perfect secret agent. They connect him with a secret Russian agent named Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), and the two embark on a dangerous mission to help President Kennedy as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wynne with somewhat atypical flair. Usually typecast as a introverted brainiac with unsavory social tendencies, here Cumberbatch seems to relish a more emotionally-driven character. The movie is, frankly, worth watching almost solely for the unexpected drama he proves himself adept at conveying. As he attempts to become the titular courier of intel, we never doubt that he's in pretty far over his head. His frequent conversations with his intelligence agent "handlers" -- Angus Wright and Rachel Brosnahan -- reveal his discomfort with lying to his wife and being constantly in danger of arrest. The Russians in the film are clearly ruthless, and fears of being thrown in a gulag are almost debilitating to the proper British gentleman. Well, "proper" when he's not schmoozing with potential clients; it's a joy to watch a loose Cumberbatch confirm for the Russians their worst suspicions about capitalist Westerners in raucous barrooms.

Remember Bridge of Spies, back in 2015? This movie reminded me of that, and of earlier movies in the genre, especially Hitchcock's. Based on true events that revolve around Cold War spies between Russia and the West, these films are most accessible as a character study, delving into the personal costs of espionage in service to your country (and, of course, the world generally). While I doubt The Courier will ever be considered an iconic or even particularly memorable entry in this genre, there's still a lot to be said for a smartly produced picture (Sean Bobbitt's engrossing cinematography feels as though it could have been made back in the 60s, while never feeling less than contemporary) with bankable stars who make a movie that comforts and interests and entertains us, even through and perhaps because of the clichés it relies upon.

Director Dominic Cooke and screenwriter Tom O’Connor work hard to strike a balance between spy-thriller action and character drama, and they mostly succeed. The movie's heart seems to be given to Wynne and Penkovsky, whose scenes together are often both fraught with tension and brimming with warm feelings. As the two men work together, they become entangled in each other's personal lives. Penkovsky even visits Wynne's family in England and becomes friendly with his wife and son. But Wynne's wife Sheila, played by Jessie Buckley, was the most interesting character to me. Patient and supportive and endlessly forgiving, she plays the dutiful wife even as she begins to suspect her husband is having an affair. He's exercising a lot, and trying new things in bed, and of course taking lots of long trips for work. When she finally learns what he's really been up to, she's utterly heartbreaking as she fights her own guilt for not trusting him and being unable to tell him, now that it's too late.

For it is indeed too late, when Wynne and Penkovsky are captured, imprisoned, and tortured by the KGB. The subsequent scenes are tired and morose, mostly taking place in dimly lit, grimy cells as they are deprived of food and sleep, beaten and abused, and isolated for two years. I found my mind drifting during these scenes simply due to their familiarity; the film renewed my interest for their final scene together, when Penkovsky's betrayal leads to his execution and Wynne is finally released after maintaining his innocence. Its sentimentality works as a result of the unpleasantness of the preceding 40 minutes or so, but I would have preferred more information about the spying and less about the incarceration, partly out of historical interest and partly because cutting out what is essentially stock footage of imprisonment would have made for a more engaging second half of the story.