The true story of a British businessman unwittingly recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. Forming an unlikely partnership with a Soviet officer hoping to prevent a nuclear confrontation, the two men work together to provide the crucial intelligence used to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“The Courier” is based on the true story of average British businessman Greville Wynn (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is approached by Britain’s MI6 in 1960 to become a courier of secret documents to be smuggled out of Russia by a secret agent, Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). Wynn is approached because he is so average as to blend in well and traveling to Russia for his business would not be so unusual as to draw notice. He is reluctant but eventually convinced of the service he could render to his country and eventually agrees to become the courier for the secret information regarding Russian missile sites in Cuba in 1960.
Although based on actual events, “The Courier” has everything one would expect in any thrilling spy drama, except possibly the superhero main character. Cumberbatch is a perfect English Everyman, a chubby, out-of-shape businessman aspiring to nothing more than to do his job as a salesman and come home to his easy chair, a drink, and his wife and son around him. Jessie Buckley plays Sheila Wynn, his wife who becomes more and more disturbed by her husband’s changing behavior and his ever more frequent trips to Moscow during the Cold War between Russia and the West.
Spy dramas make me incredibly anxious. “The Courier” was constant anxiety. We’re shown quite dramatically, shortly after the film begins, the consequences for Russian officers who betray their country and what possible fate could await Wynn and Penkovsky should the operation be discovered. More anxiety. The tension builds as it should in a good spy thriller and is heightened by the friendship which develops between the spy and his courier. Ninidze is extraordinarily convincing as the very human Russian who values his family but also feels compelled to intervene in the developing nuclear crisis in Cuba.
This film is a must-see. The characters are compelling and the story will keep you on edge, especially if you, like me, are unaware of the history behind it. I felt as though I were sitting on a saw blade during most of the action: uncomfortable, shifting around to try to avoid the inevitable unfolding of a great spy story that is emotionally gripping and historically revealing. The actors excel, the story is intense, and the direction and editing keep the action moving. One couldn’t have imagined a better story than this one and writer Tom O’Connor spills it out fast and furious. Dominic Cooke, who brings to film a theatrical stage background, also directed the critically acclaimed production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” as well as the BBC series “The Hollow Crown: The War of the Roses,” which also starred Benedict Cumberbatch. “The Courier” will no doubt be added to his list of critical successes.
In Select Theaters Friday, March 19th
