Movie Review: The Courier

While the spy thriller The Courier is the true-life story of British businessman Greville Wynne (played with bravado by Benedict Cumberbatch), it is also the tale of a friendship between two men that transcends borders and political ideologies.

Set in the early 1960s, the film follows Wynne, who has been recruited by MI-6 and the CIA to partner with a high-ranking Soviet officer named Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) to gather intelligence in an effort to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis and avert an all-out nuclear war. Wynne is tasked by CIA operative Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan) and MI-6 agent Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) to relay messages and state secrets between themselves and Penkovsky under the guise of the normal course of his regular business trips. Everything goes according to plan, that is until the KGB begins to suspect that something is afoot and the whole operation and the safety of its players are put at great risk.

What ends up being the most unique thing about the film is the complete and abrupt shift in tone that takes place around two-thirds of the way through the film, where it effortlessly segues from spy-thriller to a sort of survival story that proves every bit as engaging and emotional as that which preceded it.

Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Courier.”Director Dominic Cook, whose previous theatrical directorial outing was the 2017 drama On Chesil Beach, proves extremely capable of leading the audience through the labyrinthian machinations that comprise the world of espionage and personal sacrifices that the often expository, yet relatable, screenplay by Tom O’Connor is tasked with conveying to the viewer. Aided by the fine cinematography by Sean Bobbit as well as the crafty editing of Tariq Anwar and Gareth C. Scales, The Courier manages to become a sort of hybrid of various genres that ultimately succeeds at them all.

At the film’s heart though is the relationship between Wynne and Penkovsky and the depths each is willing to go and suffer for the other. That makes The Courier more of a tale of the human condition than an examination of political ideologies or practices. That is, at the core of everyone involved, they are simply people trying to make the world a better place for those whom they love.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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