Film Review: 'The Courier'.

Yesterday me and my friend found time to watch a film that we had wanted to watch for quite some time. We managed to find time to watch a spy thriller called 'The Courier', a film about spying during the height of the cold war in the 60s.

Indeed, especially considering that the movie was based on a true story and had a star actor in it (Benedict Cumberbatch), it was an easy decision to give the film a chance. It was more than likely that the movie was going to be entertaining and worth our time. 

Having now seen the film, I have to say that I'm pretty glad that we gave the film a shot. 'The Courier' is pretty well made and entertaining, even though there are some fairly obvious problems - especially in its story - that need to be addressed.

Premise-wise, the movie is about a British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), who at the height of the cold war gets hired by the Mi-6. They feel that he as a salesman with ties to Russia is the only person to bring information from their inside source in Moscow.

Indeed, the Mi6 knows that a high ranking GRU Colonel named Oleg Penkovsky has crucial information about their Soviet leader's intentions. Secretary Nikita Khrushchev is supposedly unstable and might be starting a war with the west, which needs to be prevented.

Quality-wise, when it comes to the film, one of the best things about it is that the movie looks really good. Pretty much every shot in the movie feels authentic (1960s) and it's clear that the producers spent a lot of time finding the right locations to shoot in (shot partly in Prague).

Acting-wise, it has to be said that both leads in the movie are spectacularly good. Both Merab Ninidze who plays Penkovsky and Cumberbatch, who plays the British salesperson-turned-into-spy are absolutely wonderful in their roles.

Story-wise, it has to be said that 'The Courier', from a perspective of a writer and a history enthusiast (especially the Kennedy assassination), even though entertaining, is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some factual, logic and character problems in it that hurt its quality.

By that I mean that one of the biggest flaws in the story is that its stakes aren't actually that 'high' or particularly well defined. There's no real urgency going on in here, even though the film tries to tap dance around this issue quite a bit.

Character-wise, when it comes to these issues, factually speaking there's no evidence that Penkovsky, even though prolific with leaking information, was a benevolent man. He merely did all the leaking to advance his own 'career', once he would eventually try to defect.

Yet another significant historical issue in the film has to do with how it tries - for storytelling reasons - to portray Russia's leader as a nut. It tries to imply that Khrushchev was somehow insane with his ideas (the upcoming Missile Crisis), which is not supported by the facts.

After all, as the film admits in the final part, the reason that Khrushchev put nukes to Cuba was not because he was crazy. He put them simply to protect their ally Cuba (after the Bay of Pigs) and also because the U.S. had already placed their own nukes in Turkey.

In that sense, when you put these issues together, it shouldn't come as a surprise that these flaws end up hurting the movie. Especially when it comes to the last third (story-wise weak defection attempt + imprisonment) they don't make that much sense or feel authentic.

Still, despite problems like these in the story, there's no question that as a whole, the good things outweigh the bad ones in the movie. These positive aspects, like the portrayed comradery between the two leads and the overall atmosphere kept the movie afloat and watchable.

In that sense, when it all is said and done, if you haven't managed to see 'The Courier' yet, I think it's safe to say that you should probably give it a go at some point. You should give the film a chance and not be too discouraged by my criticism of it.

After all, despite its issues, especially considering that it has received good reviews (95% audience fresh at Rottentomatoes.com), that's something to consider too. That's a reason to watch the film and not be too bothered by its flaws that in the end, might not matter too much.