THE COURIER

At the risk of coming across as a Boring Old Fart, I do enjoy a film where the makers are sufficiently confident in the story, and in the actors, and in the audience's patience, that they just let it enfold at the right pace, allowing characters and relationships to be properly developed.

Admittedly the story here might seem a bit thin on paper, but it does have the merit of being based on something that actually happened back in the early 1960s when the Cold War was at its coldest, and there were real fears of a global nuclear war breaking out.

Greville Wynne, an ordinary British businessman (played by Benedìct Cumberbatch), reluctantly agrees to help British and US intelligence by getting important information out of Moscow which could help prevent war.  The info is provided by Oleg Penkovsky, a senior Soviet officer (played by Merab Ninidze).

The film takes the time to show us their relationship developing into mutual respect and ultimately friendship.  We believe in it and therefore we believe that Wynne would take the extraordinarily brave step of going to Moscow to try to help Penkovsky defect, even though it has become clear at this stage that the KGB are onto the latter.

Sure enough, both men end up being held prisoner and interrogated. 

The other main character is Wynne's wife, Sheila, nicely played by Jessie Buckley, who doesn't know why her husband is making so many trips to Moscow and suspects he is having an affair.  Again their relationship is skilfully established, which pays off in a very moving scene when she visits him in the Moscow prison where he is being held.

But that is just a warmup for the main event, a splendid climactic scene between the doomed  Penkovsky and Wynne, where Wynne's life depends on Penkovsky not revealing the truth about their relationship.  

It's great stuff, if you like this sort of thing. 

RATING: ✓ If You've Nothing Better To Do