Movie Breakdown: The Courier (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
I like a good British period spy flick. They’re glacially paced, everything happens just below the surface and the proceedings are always just within the spectrum of politeness. The Courier seems to fit this bill, plus it features Benedict Cumberbatch with a mustache. Count me in.
Post-Screening Ramble:
There’s really two types of spy films: the flash-bang gadgetry of say a James Bond or a Mission: Impossible franchise flick and the more British take on the subject, a sort of laser focus on the interpersonal dynamics and grinding political bureaucracy of spycraft. The Courier, based on a true story, is most certainly the latter. Benedict Cumberbatch plays actual human being Greville Wynne, a British businessman in the 1960s whose on-the-side spying ended up helping to avert the imminent disaster of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The film revolves around his partnership-turned-friendship with Russian politician Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). This is isn’t a film that introduces much new perspective on spying, rather it plays a familiar tune of what happens when the plodding greyness of spying is suddenly splashed with a burst of moral color. Wynne was imprisoned for two years for his part in both a years-long campaign of information passing but also a failed attempt (depicted with great suspense in the film) to free Penkovsky, and The Courier seeks to showcase that the moral high ground, no matter the sacrifice, is, to some degree, worth it. Perhaps too much. Director Dominic Cooke wants Wynne and Penkovsky to stand out as likable, honorable men and he sands away any real sense of nuance in his effort. These are characters who did good in the face of evil and neither the good nor the evil is ever allowed to be much more than that. Regardless, it’s a beautifully moody film, the grey of London (and spies in general) shot with just the right amount of Hollywood grit. Cumberbatch is good as the nervous, but admirable Wynne, and Merab Ninidze shines as a career bureaucrat suddenly finding his moral fortitude. Rachel Brosnahan is good in a very familiar role, but you expect her to break out in Ms. Maisel style comedic routines at every turn. This is a well-made film that admirably exists in a very defined sandbox, a film that perhaps paints too thick a coat of heroics on a notorious profession, but does so with style and grace.
One Last Thought:
I love Jessie Buckley and when I saw she’d been cast as Wynne’s wife, I worried that her part would be superficial at best. And it isn’t a huge role, but she does make the most of her screen time.
