A superbly acted and fairly involving "Based on a True Story" spy movie jam that is good, but one can't help and consider could have been a "Great" column entry with a Spielberg (yes yes even with Bridge of Spies) or even Tarantino at the helm. This isn't to say director Cooke does a poor job or even incompetent, on the contrary he has excellent staging and a more than fine cinematographer with Sean Bobbitt framing some intensely emotional beats and moments throughout (one where we see a freak out in a prison all through the tiny peephole in the door is one notable one for me), but there doesn't seem to be much time for a major set pieces or two or three for a sequence to stand out.
This is an inherently suspenseful story, yet until about two thirds in it rarely has time to slow down for a scene to last longer than thirty seconds to a couple of minutes (a scene where the Brit and Russian watch Swan Lake in heightened emotional responses is an exception), so while it is all good and grown-up entertainment it could do with letting us feel in a more concentrated way what Wynn has to go through when he is doing his Not-but-Kinda springs, albeit this is more of a MP (my problem) than YP (yours) as far as taste with these sorts of thrillers. All this said, Cumberbatch has one of his finest roles since the Imitation Game, and I was quite keen on every moment with Brosnahan, Ninidze (who if he wasn't on The Americans he should have been) and Buckley (who reminds me in a great way of Rita Tushingham from that same time period this is set).
It can't help but go ultimately to some of the conventions of a story like this, like how characters talk about what to do about A B or C, and a reminder near the very end of the Good Times I guess(?) But if you're wanting something with the air of the now late John Le Carre and it's playing in theaters and you are in a healthy way to see it, it does well for a weekend matinee.
This is an inherently suspenseful story, yet until about two thirds in it rarely has time to slow down for a scene to last longer than thirty seconds to a couple of minutes (a scene where the Brit and Russian watch Swan Lake in heightened emotional responses is an exception), so while it is all good and grown-up entertainment it could do with letting us feel in a more concentrated way what Wynn has to go through when he is doing his Not-but-Kinda springs, albeit this is more of a MP (my problem) than YP (yours) as far as taste with these sorts of thrillers. All this said, Cumberbatch has one of his finest roles since the Imitation Game, and I was quite keen on every moment with Brosnahan, Ninidze (who if he wasn't on The Americans he should have been) and Buckley (who reminds me in a great way of Rita Tushingham from that same time period this is set).
It can't help but go ultimately to some of the conventions of a story like this, like how characters talk about what to do about A B or C, and a reminder near the very end of the Good Times I guess(?) But if you're wanting something with the air of the now late John Le Carre and it's playing in theaters and you are in a healthy way to see it, it does well for a weekend matinee.