Review: The Courier

Image courtesy of Roadside Attractions.

"The Courier" is a standard spy thriller that might remind you of other - and slightly better - movies of the same genre set during the same time period (the early 1960s), such as "The Good Shepherd" and Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," which is also a true story involving the Russians that ends with a prisoner swap. So, while the film is amusing and well made, just don't expect a reinvention of the wheel.

The film follows the story of a businessman named Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose method of keeping the money flowing is ingratiating himself to his clients. Between 1960 and 1962, Wynne helped to smuggle an enormous amount of intel out of Moscow with the assistance of a high-ranking Russian official with a conscience - Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) - who fears how far Premier Nikita Khruschchev will go to be dominant over the west, especially the United States.

Wynne is portrayed as an affable enough fellow who thinks little beyond his own business dealings, which is why the CIA and MI6 operatives who single him out consider him to possibly be a good courier - they think he'll be able to remain oblivious to the packages he's carrying, and could adequately play dumb if the Russians catch on to what he's doing.

Meanwhile, Wynne's wife, Sheila (Jessie Buckley), becomes suspicious of her husband's dealings, and for good reason - it is mentioned that years before he had an affair, and Sheila starts to believe that another such dalliance could be keeping her husband away for long spells. 

The friendship and partnership between Wynne and Penkovsky is among the film's more compelling plot strands. Penkovsky is an idealist who hates the idea of selling out his country, but figures he's doing so to retain world peace. Wynne gradually becomes impressed by Penkovsky's aims and vows to do what he can to protect the Russian as well as Britain's interests in the matter.

While "The Courier" isn't as good as "Bridge of Spies" - or "The Americans," the marvelous TV show about spying Russians - it's an effective and occasionally tense - especially when Wynne is captured by the KGB and tortured - spy thriller. The story and style in which it is made might seem overly familiar, but the film remains interesting due to the bond between the two men risking their lives to sneak intelligence out of Russia. The film doesn't show us anything new, but it takes a time honored genre and does a decent job of playing to its conventions.