The Courier
Bruce Steele: The Cold War, as they say, was neither cold nor a war, but it did disrupt a lot of lives. We get one such little-known but gripping story in The Courier. Were you transported?
Edwin Arnaudin: I was — and not a moment too soon! I’d just started watching the acclaimed French drama Night of the Kings, the first 20 minutes of which were such utter nonsense that I started wondering if I was in a mood and/or had lost the ability to connect with movies. I bailed, switched to The Courier, and quickly fell in step with its charming, old-fashioned ways. The story of British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) being recruited by a joint MI6/CIA effort to shuttle intel from Russian high-up Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze, Homeland) was wholly unknown to me. Were you familiar with it prior to the film?
Bruce: I was not, and I doubt most viewers will be, but that's for the best. Suffice it to say that events begin not long before the Berlin Wall goes up in 1961. Greville is recruited by CIA agent Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel herself) and her U.K. counterpart, Dickie Franks (Angus Wright), but I liked that he's no Tom Hanks. Which is to say, while the lawyer Hanks played in Bridge of Spies was bold and in control, Greville is reluctant and wary. He gains confidence only when he bonds with Oleg, a relationship both actors turn into the emotional core of the film.
Edwin: There are certainly overlaps in the two films’ odd-couple Cold War friendships, which has inspired some lazy “it’s no Spielberg” dismissals of The Courier, but the aims here are significantly different. Director Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) and screenwriter Tom O’Connor (rebounding nicely from the dreadful Hitman's Bodyguard) show viewers far more espionage and intrigue than the legal system focus of Bridge of Spies, and the fact that Greville and Oleg are meeting primarily in the open — albeit with thorough precautions to deter surveillance — results in poignant, layered moments between the two actors.
Bruce: Right. One of the unique pleasures of The Courier is its depiction of both the commonalities and the disconnects between top Soviet officials and this swaggering — at least for show — English businessman. The sequence when Greville brings Oleg and a busload of Soviets to London is especially lively and illuminating. But the film also has lovely intimate moments
Edwin: That would include the appealing domestic tension with Greville’s wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley, I’m Thinking of Ending Things), who suspects that her husband is having yet another affair. Cumberbatch hasn’t had a film role this complex in a while, and I think he excels at balancing all of the pressures Greville must endure to secretly serve his country.
Bruce: It's his best role since The Imitation Game, certainly, and has a similarly dynamic layering, as well as a final twist that can't have been easy to play. Buckley is also given quite a nice showcase for her talents in the final act, after seeming wasted for much of the movie. I never got much of a sense of the CIA agent as a person, but Brosnahan is an appealing presence — as is Wright, playing her MI6 partner — and that more or less papers over the lack of development for the real spies. There's more here than just good performances, though. There's some beautiful filmmaking.
Edwin: Agreed. Cooke’s background is primarily in theater, which I reckon has something to do with the high quality of performances and blocking here. It’s also gorgeously lensed by Sean Bobbitt, who’s rightfully up for a Best Cinematography Oscar for Judas and the Black Messiah, and features a whimsical yet melancholic — and decidedly European — score from Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man; Nocturnal Animals) that reminds me of the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie).
Bruce: I did love the score. The excerpts from classic Russian works blends perfectly with Korzeniowski's original music.
Edwin: But engaging as its fairly subdued tone proved for us, I could see The Courier playing a bit stale for certain viewers, similar to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and other le Carré adaptations. James Bond, this ain’t, but it hooked me early and reassured me that I’m not (completely) crazy. That’s worth a high B-plus.
Bruce: If it had been a le Carré story, Greville and Emily would have had an affair, and the hint of a mole in MI6 would have been a thumping subplot rather than a throwaway scene. No, this is chiefly a dual character study set against an intense Cold War backdrop, and Cooke makes no attempt to give it that Spielberg swell. So you're probably right that it's not for everyone. But it gave me hope for 2021 becoming a better year for films than The Year We Need Not Name. I’ll concur with your high B-plus.
Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at Asheville’s Carolina Cinemark. Opens March 19 at the AMC River Hills Classic and Hendersonville Epic.
(Photo: Lionsgate)
