the courier movie review guardian

The Courier review – Benedict Cumberbatch’s salesman spy is no Smiley

Cumberbatch has it all to do in this slow-paced, real-life tale of 60s Soviet espionage directed by Dominic Cooke

T he real-life story of salesman turned spy Greville Wynne is loosely adapted into this cold war drama that combines plenty of the ingredients for a first-class espionage thriller but doesn’t quite deliver. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wynne, an adequately successful British businessman with a weakness for booze who finds himself a courier for and a friend to high-level Soviet informer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze).

Royal Court theatre alumnus and film-maker Dominic Cooke ( On Chesil Beach ) directs, dressing the story in a suitably ominous colour palette and capturing the oppressive sense of lives surveilled. But with slack pacing and insufficient focus, the film lacks the crackle of tension and propulsive efficiency of something like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy .

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The Courier

“The Courier” will evoke memories of prior spy movies and the tropes they often employ. More specifically, you may be reminded of the superior Cold War-era spy-swapping 2015 film, “ Bridge of Spies .” Both films are based on real events and have Russian spies, imprisoned agents, and a swap between Russia and the West. Here, however, the swap is not an integral part of the main story, and the Russian spy is working for MI6 and the CIA. As in Spielberg’s film, this is a meditation on the individual cost of doing something not for personal gain but for the common good. There’s a whole set of cinematic clichés that come with stories like that, and adding them to this mix risks overcrowding. But cliché is not a bad thing if it’s done right, especially if they involve characters to root for and a fair amount of high stakes to overcome.

Director Dominic Cooke and screenwriter Tom O’Connor tell the “based on true events” story of Greville Wynne ( Benedict Cumberbatch ). Wynne was a British businessman who, from 1960 and 1962, smuggled thousands of pieces of intel out of Russia before he was captured, imprisoned, and tortured for two years by the KGB. Assisting him in his role as “courier” is Oleg Penkovsky ( Merab Ninidze ), a far more experienced Russian agent. Wynne’s role as a salesman who works his magic on Eastern European clients makes him a good smuggler; as a Brit, he’s assumed to be a purely capitalist creature whose only concern is money. Couple that with his superb talent for schmoozing and boozing with customers, and he emerges as someone who’s neither suspicious nor a potential danger to Soviet security.

Wynne is surprised to be recruited by MI6’s Dickie Franks ( Angus Wright ) who, along with CIA agent Emily Donovan ( Rachel Brosnahan ), convinces him to meet with Penkovsky, because any intel will help President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. She assures him he’ll be safe. Initially, Wynne turns them down because the entire idea seems incredulous. He has no formal training. Plus, he’s a family man with a precocious young son, Andrew (Keir Hills) and a loving, forgiving wife, Sheila ( Jessie Buckley ). Sheila’s pardoning nature revealed itself after Wynne took those dirty jokes about traveling salesmen to heart. Sudden trips to Moscow, frequent trips he can’t tell his wife about in any regard, are bound to arouse her suspicions about new infidelities.

“The Courier” makes the connection that Wynne’s job of “making the clients happy” has the same thespian qualities of being a spy: He is playing a role, one that requires him to hide his true feelings and present a specific, carefully calibrated, unflappable front. Penkovsky reassures him that he’s handling the job well. As the two family men spend more time together, their guards lower and the two become close friends. Cumberbatch and Ninidze do a very good job conveying their newfound bond, which helps the viewer swallow the unbelievable decision that sets the second half of the film in motion.

The first hour, which focuses on the existing and budding human relationships in England and in Russia, plays better than the prison-bound second hour. There’s a sweet, realistic dynamic between Sheila and Greville. Buckley gives an excellent performance that carries her over to the predictable moment when she has to pivot to the strong spouse cautiously awaiting the return of her husband. Of course, she’s convinced Greville is cheating when she catches him exercising more than he’s ever done, not to mention that he’s trying new things he’s never considered before in bed. Buckley handles this with the right touch of bemusement and forcefulness, warning that she won’t be so understanding if there’s another woman. Her best scene is when she realizes the true nature of her husband’s secrecy, and how she may never have the chance to tell him she’s sorry for not trusting him

We also spend time with Penkovsky and his wife and daughter. Their scenes are just as loving as the Wynnes’, but they’re tinged with more danger. Penkovsky is a decorated former soldier with many security clearances, and as he tells Wynne, everyone in Russia has eyeballs that surveil for the state. One can easily predict that Penkovsky’s espionage work will catch up with him, but it’s a bumpier road to believing that Wynne would risk life and limb to go back in to try and help him defect. Once he’s captured, “The Courier” loses steam as it isolates its main character for violent prison scenes that we’ve seen endless times before. Those sequences culminate in a jail cell reunion between Penkovsky and Wynne that’s memorable because it wears its empathy like a sentimental badge of honor.

Though there’s nothing new or transformative here, “The Courier” stays afloat due to the acting by Buckley, Cumberbatch, and Ninidze. Unfortunately, Brosnahan’s performance is flat. Her character feels completely out of place here, as if Donovan were thrown in to inject an American into a very British story. Her one big scene, where she tries to terrify Wynne by describing the four minutes he’d have if a nuke were heading for London, is unconvincing and doesn’t have the reverse psychology effect the film thinks it does. I was a bit surprised that “The Courier” worked for me as well as it did, and I must give some credit to Sean Bobbitt ’s moody cinematography and Abel Korzeniowski ’s engaging score. Their work gave the illusion that this film could have been made in the timeframe it is set. That sealed the deal for me.

Odie Henderson

Odie “Odienator” Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire  here .

• Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne
• Merab Ninidze as Oleg Penkovsky
• Rachel Brosnahan as Emily Donovan
• Jessie Buckley as Sheila Wynne
• Angus Wright as Dickie Franks
• Kirill Pirogov as Gribanov
• Abel Korzeniowski
• Dominic Cooke
• Gareth C. Scales
• Tariq Anwar

Cinematographer

• Sean Bobbitt
• Tom O’Connor

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The Courier review: Benedict Cumberbatch excels in an otherwise predictable Cold War tale

Dominic cooke’s true-life drama explores how history can be made by the most humble of people committing the smallest of actions, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Dominic Cooke. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Angus Wright. 12A, 111 mins

Benedict Cumberbatch , with cheekbones curved like an archer’s bow and the flared nostrils of some ancient dragon, has the right face to play geniuses. Sherlock Holmes, Alan Turing , Thomas Edison – if he lets his lips settle with the right amount of tension, he can transform them all into something proud, elegant, and exceptional. But in Dominic Cooke ’s Cold War drama The Courier – which premiered at 2020’s Sundance Film Festival under the name Ironbark – Cumberbatch proves himself equally capable of playing the average Joe. It helps, too, that he can hide his distinctive features behind a thick moustache, and trade his confident tone for a softer, nervy lilt.

He is well cast in this true-life drama, which explores how history can be made by the most humble of people committing the smallest of actions. In the early Sixties, the Cold War turned the potential for a nuclear apocalypse into a daily, persistent threat, as tensions continued to rise between the US and the Soviet Union. Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch), a salesman with interests in eastern Europe, became a crucial pawn in ferrying highly classified information out of Russia, where it was being leaked by Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), and into the hands of MI6. Wynne’s trips to Moscow, and his meetings with Penkovsky, were all conducted under the guise of simple business.

Cumberbatch excels here by not falling back into dullish stoicism. A jolt of childish excitement courses through him when he’s first recruited, despite having no skills or insight into espionage. And when he first meets up with Penkovsky, it’s with the giddiness of a first date. “What happens now?” he blurts out. “I don’t need to do anything, do I?” The actor has an excellent scene partner in Ninidze, who plays Penkovsky with the gentleness of a man determined to keep hold of his humanity even under the threat of annihilation.

Screenwriter Tom O’Connor draws focus away from the Cuban missile crisis, leaving it to bubble menacingly in the background so that The Courier can be a story of the growing bond between these two men. They take sightseeing trips. They attend the ballet. They drink. Heavily. Something within their interactions – perhaps the spark of friendship, the fear of death, or the glamour of subterfuge – invigorates Wynne. His wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley, who is far too good an actor to be wasted in such a shallow, submissive role) remarks with a discernable air of suspicion that “he’s become so energetic in bed”. She suspects him of infidelity.

But The Courier is, inevitably, limited in its insight into how ordinary individuals can change the world. This is a commercially minded spy film, after all, so we come to understand Wynne and Penkovsky purely through action – shadowy meetings in car parks, the handing over of envelopes, or the discreet snapping of cameras. Sean Bobbitt, who masterfully shot so many of Steve McQueen’s films, is restricted here to a rather dull, drained colour palette, as if required to emulate the look of the film’s genre contemporaries. The Courier may have its moments, but it’s also burdened with certain expectations.

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‘The Courier’ Review: Secrets and Spies

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a salesman-turned-secret agent in this stuffy Cold War drama.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

“The Courier,” a true life-based spy thriller set in the early 1960s — and staged to appeal to audiences old enough to have lived through them — stubbornly resists involving or affecting us until it’s almost over. By that time, though, you might have fallen asleep.

Ideally, that shouldn’t happen while watching two stand-up guys — one British, one Russian — perhaps narrowly prevent a nuclear apocalypse. But the director, Dominic Cooke (whose 2018 feature debut, “On Chesil Beach,” touchingly conveyed the tragedy of broken intimacy), is either unable to generate tension or simply chooses not to. The Cuban Missile Crisis might loom in the background, but we barely sense its menace as Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), an unremarkable English salesman, is enlisted as an intermediary between MI6 (in the form of a suave Angus Wright) and a Soviet officer named Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze).

With its wood-paneled rooms and pluming cigarette smoke, “The Courier” is espionage cinema at its most decorous. Disappointingly, no one is karate-chopping or transforming fountain pens into tiny daggers. (Instead, they have lunch and attend the ballet.) Wynne, we are told, must be given a crash course in tradecraft before accepting Soviet secrets, but Tom O’Connor’s stolid script is actively antithetical to such excitement. We need a montage!

Though Jessie Buckley, as Wynne’s suspicious wife, and Rachel Brosnahan, as an amusingly pushy C.I.A. operative, add welcome jolts of female energy, “The Courier” is essentially the story of an extraordinary male friendship. The men’s mutual compassion peaks too late to save the picture, but is no less moving for that.

The Courier Rated PG-13 for a bit of violence and a blink-and-you-miss-it bedroom scene. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

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Cold War Connections in “The Courier”

Two men walk down a street at night. One of them says, “I’ve dreamed of this moment for a very long time.” The other man says, “What happens now? I don’t need to do anything, do I?” On a later occasion, in a hotel room, we see them draw close, leaning in to murmur in each other’s ear. It must be love.

Not so fast. These scenes come from Dominic Cooke’s “The Courier,” which is set in the early nineteen-sixties and is based on true and hazardous happenings of the period. The first man is Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). He runs the state committee for scientific research in the Soviet Union, and is so alarmed by the speed of the arms race that he offers—for the sake of peace, not for personal gain—to pass Russian nuclear secrets to the West. The other man is Greville Wynne ( Benedict Cumberbatch ), a less distinguished soul. He is an Englishman, a salesman, and, in terms of espionage, a rube. He has a wife, a son, a trilby, a waist-length sheepskin coat, and a mustache that is presumably meant to make him look sprightly and debonair, like David Niven. It fails.

Penkovsky and Wynne—they sound like a pair of magicians—are brought together by the joint initiative of the American and British intelligence services. Penkovsky has made the initial approach, but such is the level of surveillance in Moscow that any contact with a Western spy would be doomed. A C.I.A. agent, Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), appeals to her counterparts in London for help: a flattering request, although her boss, back in Langley, warns her about “the bullshit of dealing with the Brits.” “They’re good guys,” she says. “I just have to make them think they’re in charge.”

Enter the amateur. Wynne, who has done legitimate business in the Eastern Bloc, trading in scientific machinery, is persuaded to fly to Moscow, to establish an overt professional link with Penkovsky and, under that masquerade, to bring back sensitive information. An elegant arrangement, which works until it doesn’t. Anyone who revels in such tales of subterfuge will be elated to find the customary props in place: a chalk mark swiped across a lamppost; a radio turned up loud to deter bugging; and—my favorite—a dinky Minox camera, used to photograph military documents and diagrams. But why does Penkovsky keep the Minox in his desk drawer, where the K.G.B. can sniff it out? Basic error, Oleg Vladimirovich!

At one point, with the Cuban missile crisis looming, we see another camera—a closeup of a lens, in the underbelly of a U-2 spy plane, trained on Soviet installations below. This is a straight steal from Steven Spielberg’s “ Bridge of Spies ” (2015), to which, unavoidably, “The Courier” will be compared. Cooke’s film is shorter by half an hour, and the plot is urged along at a brisk trot. In the latter stages, we are indignant, on Wynne’s behalf, when he is arrested on Russian soil, imprisoned, and taken far into his discomfort zone. His hair is shorn, and so, to our disbelief, is his mustache. Yet the movie, less stirring than it ought to be, is peculiarly cramped, lacking the emotional latitude of “Bridge of Spies.” Spielberg dramatized a clash of moral principles, under the cover story of a thriller, but “The Courier” is all that it appears to be and not much more.

For fans of Cumberbatch, on the other hand, it will be a fount of joy. Like Bill Nighy and, before him, Denholm Elliott, Cumberbatch excels at playing decent men, well-meaning and well-mannered, who are weak at heart, and who worry—with reason—that decency alone will not shield them from the larger world. That is why such men prefer to keep their lives small, and why they twitch and flinch or, in Wynne’s case, muster a stricken smile at the prospect of jeopardy. “Would I be putting myself in danger?” is one of Wynne’s first questions to his handlers, and even at lunch, in London, he glances over his shoulder. Against the odds, though, this middling coward finds a fortitude in himself, and is altered by the discovery. His wife, Sheila, played with a tender sharpness by Jessie Buckley, isn’t sure what he does on his trips to Moscow, but she feels the effect. “He’s become so energetic in bed,” she says, more perplexed than pleased, as if noting a change in the weather. The spy who comes back from the cold is warming up.

The first time we see Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone), the heroine of “Come True,” she is lying in a sleeping bag, at the foot of a slide, in a playground. It’s early morning, and we have an instant sense that things are out of joint in Sarah’s life. From the playground, she cycles home for a shower, taking care to avoid her mother, before setting off for school. So why, at the age of eighteen, was she waking in a public space? And from what abominations was she roused?

Not surprisingly, Sarah keeps dozing off in class, and you can’t blame her for signing up to participate in a sleep study. Anything to get herself on track. Henceforth, she will spend her nights at a special facility, where, clad in a sleep suit and a soft helmet—both of them curiously ribbed, with wires attached—she will be monitored as she drifts off into dreams. Think of her as a somnonaut. For her pains, Sarah will earn twelve dollars an hour; the film, which is written, directed, shot, and edited by Anthony Scott Burns, is the story of those pains.

The facility, of course, is staffed with oddballs. The boss, Dr. Meyer (Christopher Heatherington), wears huge glasses, like Elliott Gould in the “Ocean’s Eleven” films, and the resident genius, Jeremy (Landon Liboiron), is accused by Sarah of stalking her, out of office hours. She tells him, “You just thought, Hey, since I don’t ever leave my nerd den, this is probably my best chance to meet the future Mrs. Nerd, so, if I just follow her around, maybe she’ll fall for my magical fucking nerd charms.”

The problem is that, later on, she does fall for his nerd charms—one of many narrative swerves at which viewers may snigger or balk. The finale, in particular, is designed to be scrapped over like a bone. Yet the film reaches out, even at its most implausible, and claws at you; when Sarah sleepwalks along a road, trailing cables, with Jeremy and another researcher dogging her slow steps, you start by wondering where all the cars are and end up marvelling at the surreal dignity of this mini-procession. In every sense, it is Stone who leads the way. As Sarah, she is slight and quick, with round features and a shock of short blond hair, and, if she didn’t play Ariel and Puck onstage at school, I want to know why.

One way to gauge the impact of today’s movie stars is to imagine them in the era of silent pictures. Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh, for instance, would have thrived back then, and so would Stone. The person she most resembles is Mary Astor, whose long career was kicking off a century ago. Like Astor, Stone has wide-set eyes, more doleful than innocent, which make her look preternaturally wise to the fact that, whatever she does, trouble will be along soon. One difference is that, with the advent of talkies, Astor’s voice proved to be enticingly low, whereas Stone’s delivery, in “Come True,” has more of a teen-age snap. “ So cool,” she says, when Jeremy shows her what his monitor can do. It not only registers brain activity but also reproduces actual dreams on a screen.

For people who collect movie dreams, “Come True” is quite a find. Sarah’s subconscious journeys waft her through so many doors, and other helpful orifices, that any remaining Freudians will drop their cigars in delight. Notable landmarks include one humanoid figure with a head like a splintered tree, a second with a windmill of waving legs where its upper half should be, and a third who pops like a silent balloon, leaving a ragged blob and recalling a similar burst in “Under the Skin” (2013). What’s more, if you have happy memories of being traumatized by the ghosts in “The Fog” (1980), whose eyes were mere glowing holes, you’ll love the gang of shady fellows who throng the dormant Sarah, gazing from the gloom like nocturnal animals on the prowl.

What matters most about movie dreams, however, is not how they stand out but how securely they are set, like gems, in the context of the film. Whether we honestly need the crazy-colored night fever in “Vertigo” (1958), given how richly Hitchcock steeps us in the dreaminess of the everyday, is open to debate. Burns’s method, in “Come True,” is to veil Sarah’s dreams in a deep gray haze, which renders details indistinct, and then to dull the light during her waking hours, too, so that we can scarcely tell where reality ends and reverie begins. Is that a fine philosophical conceit, or has the evidence been rigged? And why is it that casual, clear-cut, and non-spooky dreams—you know, the kind in which you go to the supermarket, buy some milk, and realize that the cashier is the guy who taught you chemistry when you were twelve—are never granted access to Sarah’s sleeping mind? Because too much normality, I guess, would be an embarrassment to the cultivation of fear. Only nightmares need apply. ♦

‘The Courier’ Review: The Civilian Who Came in From the Cold

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in this solid if dull-by-definition espionage story about the civilian recruited to liaise with a top Russian spy at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Movie spies typically fall into one of two categories. There are the butterflies — flamboyant secret agents like James Bond or “Atomic Blonde” who behave as conspicuously as possible. And then there are the moth-like kind, who do their best to blend in. The character Benedict Cumberbatch plays in “The Courier” (previously called “Ironbark”) belongs to the latter variety, a fellow so boring that he’s virtually invisible, recruited for the specific purpose that the Russians will never suspect him of working for MI6. Strategically speaking, it’s a good plan, but maybe not the best formula to yield an especially thrilling thriller — although Sundance audiences seemed to enjoy watching “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan playing a slightly more ostentatious (blond-wigged) CIA agent.

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Shaken martinis and martial-arts fight sequences tend to be a lot more sexy than watching whatever Cumberbatch, playing an English salesman named Greville Wynne, does to avoid suspicion in this intermittently interesting espionage drama — basically, going to the ballet, hosting business meetings, drinking with clients, while discreetly passing packages from a high-ranking Russian mole. “The Courier’s” hook is that it’s based on true events, and the underlying history deserves to be shared.

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Back in the early 1960s, around the time the Cuban Missile Crisis put the United States on atomic alert, MI6 approached Wynne with an unconventional plan. They’d received word from Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), a high-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer, that he was looking for a way to leak information about the country’s nuclear program. Rather than sending a trained agent to be his contact, they decided to recruit a civilian, who could come and go without attracting too much attention. Since Penkovsky was tasked with stealing Western technology secrets, his colleagues would view the relationship as being advantageous to Russia, not realizing that documents were flowing in the opposite direction.

Normally, a movie like this would probably wind up on British television, but for whatever reason, “The Courier” has been made with the big screen in mind, which means audiences will benefit from a pair of terrific lead performances, handsome widescreen lensing (by Steve McQueen’s go-to DP, Sean Bobbitt) and a lovely waltz-like score (from Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, who also did “Penny Dreadful”). Those might also be there if it had been done as a TV movie — and “The Courier” could well wind up a part of some streaming company’s slate — but director Dominic Cooke has a better budget to work with, and motivation to make the project cinematic.

Screenwriter Tom O’Connor (“The Hitman’s Bodyguard”) seems to think he’s landed on something original by treating the bond that developed between Wynne and Penkovsky as an extramarital affair. Trouble is, with all the sneaking around and secret-keeping involved, that’s more or less the default metaphor for illicit bromances, driving everything from Michael Mann’s whistleblower saga “The Insider” to the 3D chess game that was Tomas Alfredson’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

Here, the analogy becomes literal, not because there’s anything homoerotic at stake, but since we learn that Wynne had cheated on his wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) once before, which makes her understandably suspicious when he starts doing push-ups and disappearing on frequent business trips to the USSR. You know who’s not suspicious? The Russians, with the result that “The Courier” feels a lot less exciting than it might have been, despite a scene when a traitor is shot in the head to make a point to Penkovsky and his fellow GRU officers.

Cooke proves an inspired choice of director for such material (even if the material itself leaves something to be desired), considering the relationship-focused nature of his feature debut, the underrated “On Chesil Beach.” That picture delved into a newlywed couple’s marital problems, and worked quite well until the final stretch, when bad makeup and an awkward leap forward in time threatened to ruin everything. As if to compensate, Cooke makes it a point to deliver a more impactful ending, despite the fact his two main characters are wasting away behind bars by this point. From the looks of it, both actors lost a ton of weight for the time they spent locked up by Russian authorities, which leaves one duly impressed by their performances. In a way, their commitment matches the characters’ sacrifice, lending power to the last act.

A theater director whose experience adapts well to cinema, Cooke once again inspires great work from his ensemble. Cumberbatch has a very particular, somewhat priggish look that lends itself well to period roles — and to a moth-like operative like this in particular, whose life is so drab that he practically gives himself hiccups out of giddiness when MI6 first pitches him the idea. Brosnahan has less to do, but is a welcome presence all the same. A general complaint, which could be budget-based: There are too few extras to flesh out the film, giving the relatively stuffy impression that life stops at the edge of the frame. Despite ongoing conflicts with Russia today, the movie doesn’t feel terribly relevant to our time. Maybe in 60 years, someone will make a movie about Wynne’s modern-day counterpart, but for now, let’s assume he’s hidden in plain sight.

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 24, 2020. Running time: 111 MIN. (Original title: “Ironbark”)

• Production: (U.K.) A FilmNation Entertainment, 42, Sunnymarch production. (Int'l sales: FilmNation, New York.) Producers: Adam Ackland, Ben Browning, Ben Pugh, Rory Aitken. Executive producers: Leah Clarke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ashley Fox, Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, Milan Popelka, Dominic Cooke, Tom O’Connor, Josh Varney. Co-producer: Donald Sabourin.
• Crew: Director: Dominic Cooke. Screenplay: Tom O’Connor. Camera: Sean Bobbitt. Editors: Tariq Anwar, Gareth C. Scales. Music: Abel Korzeniowski.

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The Courier film review: Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant as a dumb Bond in this real-life spy story

It’s the early Sixties and Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) is an English salesman. He’s also helping MI6 and the CIA to spy on the Russians. His flaws make him perfect for the job. Greville is not quite as dim as he pretends to be, but he’s definitely not over-endowed with brains. Think of him as a dumb Bond.

Greville Wynne was a real-life figure and this film’s mission is to show how he evolved into a genuine hero, thanks to his friendship with wise, brave and poetic Russian mole Oleg Penkovsky (Georgian actor Merab Ninidze). Oleg’s info, passed along by Greville, allows Kennedy to get the upper hand in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet when the KGB realise that Oleg is a double agent, the Britain and American spy chiefs say they can’t possibly intervene. Horrified by such callous behaviour, Greville and CIA agent Emily (Rachel Brosnahan) hatch a daring plan to save the Russian’s skin.

The 45 year old British actor is a superstar, and millions of people will be pleased to see him in a meaty leading role. In The Mauritanian , which, like The Courier, Cumberbatch executive produced, the focus was on Tahar Rahim’s beleaguered inmate. Here, it’s Cumberbatch who endures beatings in a foreign jail and gets his head shaved, an indignity that offsets the beauty of his eyes which (even more than usual) resemble coral reef fish.

Cumberbatch is brilliant at the existential stuff (Greville is the kind of man who’s always playing a part, but in solitary confinement there’s no gallery to play to and you can all but taste his panic). He’s just as convincing in the movie’s first half, much of it set in Wynne’s cramped London home.

You get the feeling Greville and his wife, Sheila (Jessie Buckley; ace), have watched a lot of Thin Man movies. Greville has William Powell’s moustache; Sheila has Myrna Loy’s dinky hair-do; their arch banter is full of references to booze and golf. There’s something soul-crushingly pinched about the couple’s double-act. What Greville and Oleg share is so much... bigger. Watching ballet with Oleg, while a petulant Khrushchev (Vladimir Chuprikov) sits in the royal box, Greville looks awed. No wonder he’s willing to sacrifice everything for his thrilling new best friend.

Back in the day, an English actor like Tom Wilkinson would have been cast as Oleg. What an improvement to have Ninidze on board, someone who can launch effortlessly into real Russian, laying bare the doubleness of Oleg’s life.

True, attempts to make Wynne appear noble are somewhat heavy-handed and not remotely based on fact. “Emily” is a fictional character (partly introduced to make the whole thing less blokey, and partly in honour of Janet Chisholm, another British agent closely involved with Penkovsky who, unlike the chatty Wynne, always refused to speak publicly about her part in the operation) and the whole rescue attempt is a fabrication (Wynne did get thrown into jail, but that was because – whether out of hubris or foolishness – he thought it would be safe to make a business trip to Budapest, which is where the Russians picked him up). Nor did Wynne and Penkovsky enjoy a heart-to-heart in jail. Nor was Wynne’s marriage strengthened by adversity.

The good news is that the film is rarely dull. Right at the end, an archive clip of Wynne shows him talking to the press. Clearly intoxicated by the attention, the man glows with mischief and the (not altogether wholesome) desire to keep his audience guessing. The unpredictability of our nearest and dearest is the true theme of Tom O’Connor’s script.

The Courier may not be as subtle or cohesive as Cumberbatch’s last spy movie, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , but its best moments are haunting. If some elements of this package are dubious, it remains way too valuable to return to sender.

112mins 12A. In cinemas

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Film Review: ‘The Courier’ is a Gripping and Emotional Espionage Thriller

Every year sees movies that seem primed for awards attention that for one reason or another end up overlooked.  The Courier  is undoubtedly one of those movies. Premiering way back at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, under the title  Ironbark , the film is oddly being released just outside of the eligibility calendar for this year’s award season. Perhaps no matter what it would have been overlooked had it been released among the many contenders that have dominated this year’s extended awards season. It’s hard to imagine that being the case, though, as  Dominic Cooke ’s espionage thriller based on true events ticks off so many of the Academy’s favorite boxes, and does it well. 

Set during the Cold War, Cooke’s film (written by  Tom O’Connor ) tells the story of two men who worked together to prevent impending nuclear war and help defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of them, a man who earned the codename Ironbark, was a Soviet officer named Oleg Penkovsky ( Merab Ninidze ), and the other a mild-mannered British businessman with the fantastic name Greville Wynne ( Benedict Cumberbatch ). Wynne was recruited by the MI-6 and CIA to use his position in sales as a way to cross enemy lines and connect with Oleg in order to transfer information across borders and help his country acquire the upper hand. 

This is a gripping story of adversity against all odds, a film in the tradition of recent crowd-pleasing Oscar favorites like  Argo   and   Bridge of Spies , mixing patriotism and uncomplicated heroics with a well-paced structure that knows when to escalate and when to settle back into the calm. Cooke knows exactly the right moments to put the foot on the gas to keep the audience engaged without ever moving this story so fast that we can’t keep up. At one point, Oleg says the line, “Maybe we’re only two people, but this is how things change”, and it’s a powerful moment, yet for some viewers it may feel a bit too on the nose and difficult to swallow when we can turn on the news right now and see so many horrific, inhumane displays of evil happening every day. Maybe  The Courier  is a movie that would have played better to audiences in the early 2000s than it does in 2021. Then again, maybe it’s the movie we need right now. 

Perhaps that relatively black and white nature of the story was a little too clean for  The Courier  to take off on the festival circuit? There’s certainly never a question here as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Still, it’s hard to be too deterred by any perceived lack of nuance when the story being told is such an immersive one full of old-school cinematic entertainment, and an inspirational story of people fighting with all of their might to try and do what they believe is the right thing. This is the kind of movie where you’ll be in the middle of watching it and simply assume that it’s got “Academy Award winner” attached to its title. 

It certainly helps that Cooke has assembled a mighty selection of actors to bring these characters to life. Cumberbatch has possibly never been better cast than he is here. He expertly navigates this man’s blend of charm, naïveté, and courage, effectively building this arc from semi-reluctant civilian to a man full of bravery and a genuine belief in something. You can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Ninidze and him establish a bond that you truly invest in, and  Rachel Brosnahan  and  Jessie Buckley  steal scenes as a CIA operative and Wynne’s wife, respectively. 

This is the story of two men often overlooked by history, whose stories aren’t often told, and Cooke gives them the attention they deserve. The final act shows us how hard they had to push to maintain their courage in the face of great strife, making it impossible to walk away from this film without feeling something. As is the case with their stories,  The Courier ’s questionable release strategy right in the thick of awards conversations that it’s not eligible for will likely mean it will be forgotten quickly, if not entirely overlooked upon its release. That would be a shame, as people would be missing an effectively told espionage film the likes of which we don’t often see anymore. 

SCORE: ★★ ★  

The Courier  releases in theaters on March 19th, 2021 

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Benedict Cumberbatch Dominic Cooke Jessie Buckley Merab Ninidze Rachel Brosnahan The Courier Tom O'Connor

Written by Mitchell Beaupre

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In Theaters and Digital

The courier - movie review.

On the very short list of important people who have almost singlehandedly saved scores of lives, there’s one name you’ve likely never heard of. British businessman turned government agent Greville Wynne is the real life subject of Dominic Cooke ’s spy thriller called The Courier .

Benedict Cumberbatch steps into the unassuming shoes of Wynne with an enlightening performance worthy of a character whose brave actions during the Soviet Union’s military buildup in the early ’60s directly led to a peaceful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, thereby pulling the world from the brink of nuclear war, and saving an untold number of lives.

As the film opens, we meet Wynne, a working class schmo whose special gift includes wining and dining potential clients who show interest in buying his company’s engineering gizmos and gadgets. However, it’s his access to eastern European markets that gets the attention of British MI6 operative Dickie Franks ( Angus Wright, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ), and CIA agent Emily Donovan ( Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) , who eventually coax the gullible Briton into agreeing to meet with a Soviet official who wants to communicate with the West.

It’s this friendship around which Cooke builds his story, that gives the film a strong human element. With the help of a sizzling hot script by Tom O’Connor who hits all the right spy thriller notes, their story, while not entirely original, is a smoldering look at the world of spies and double agents that keeps us on the edge of our seats.

As expected, The Courier operates on a slow burn pace with dangerous stakes that build with every meeting between the two operatives. Messages are passed in rather random and unsuspecting ways, whether in secret cleaning detergent cans, or hand-passed notes stored in false-bottom desk drawers, as the pair pull off their hijinks right under the noses of Soviet officials. However, the stakes couldn’t be any higher for either man on the Homefront as saving the world could also mean losing their family. Important considerations are brought to the forefront that highlight the struggle over duty to country and the importance of family.

The Courier is a well-made and informative spy thriller that features several memorable performances, namely that of Cumberbatch and Ninidze . Cooke ’s decision to lean into the relationship side of the story was a good one, and the cinematography of Sean Bobbitt lends the proceedings a deliciously gritty Soviet-era drabness that plops us right into the Cold War mindset. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed to spend a bit more time on the actual spy craft and clandestine tactics that made it possible for these two men to pull off what they did. After premiering at 2020’s Sundance, the film has had a long road to its eventual release. The Courier is now showing in theaters, and is one you really shouldn’t miss.

Home Video Distributor: Available on Blu-ray Screen Formats: Subtitles : Audio: Discs: Region Encoding:

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, partial nudity, brief strong language, and smoking throughout. Runtime: 73 mins Director : Dominic Cooke Writer: Tom O'Connor Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan Genre : Thriller Tagline: Based on the incredible true story of a businessman turned spy. Memorable Movie Quote: Theatrical Distributor: Lionsgate Official Site: https://www.thecouriermovie.com/ Release Date: March 19, 2021 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis : Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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The Courier Review: Benedict Cumberbatch Makes A Great Ordinary Man In Extraordinary Circumstances

If thrust into a dangerous situation, we’d all like to believe that we’d respond as a hero. We are constantly exposed to movies about normal people who make bold moves when faced with threat or oppression, and we’d all like to think that we’d react similarly to those protagonists under similar circumstances in our own lives. It’s empowering to watch films with such messages, and that’s particularly true when it comes to stories about real people.

Dominic Cooke’s The Courier is one such story, and thanks to an awesome performance from star Benedict Cumberbatch , it’s a memorable one. You may go into the feature not being aware of the extraordinary efforts made by ordinary British citizen Greville Wynne during the Cold War, but you’ll walk away remembering his incredible bravery thanks to what is a tense and well-paced thriller, with the turn from its lead being the great highlight.

Set in 1960, The Courier begins as Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), a Soviet military intelligence colonel, makes an incredibly bold move by sending clandestine word to the American embassy in Moscow that he is willing to provide military secrets to the United States and Great Britain. Lacking faith in the stability of Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev (Vladimir Chuprikov), Penkovsky fears that the escalating arms race could result in nuclear war, and commits himself to providing all of the information that he can to the CIA and MI6. The issue faced, however, is physically making that happen.

Knowing that they can’t send in any of their own people, American and British agents Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan) and Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) tap an ordinary man for the courier job: Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), a businessman who frequently does work in Eastern Europe. Wynne is asked by the spies to start pursuing new contracts in the Soviet Union, and while doing so regularly takes packages from Penkovsky and smuggles them out of the country. He is in no way trained in espionage, and is utterly terrified, but he obliges out of duty to his country and with promise that his wife (Jessie Buckley) and son would be taken care of should the worst occur.

As Wynne continues to make regular trips, his relationship with Penkovsky is enhanced, as the two men live in two different worlds, but bond over shared values. All the while, however, tensions between the U.S.S.R. and the United States/Great Britain continue to escalate, and the work being done becomes ever more important as Khrushchev sets plans in motion to equip Cuba with atomic missiles – in doing so eventually instigating the terrifying Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Courier has a great story to tell, and it tells it well.

Given how many movies we’ve seen about the work of spies during the Cold War, it’s practically dumbfounding that this is the first time that Greville Wynne’s story has been adapted for the big screen. With great credit going to screenwriter Tom O’Connor, The Courier isn’t the flashiest title in the subgenre – forgoing any fight scenes and featuring only one very quick chase sequences – but it succeeds in escalating drama and tension by getting you to emotionally invest in the characters while real historical context constantly raises the temperature. Anyone who knows about the actual events even in broad strokes knows how things ultimately turned out with the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it’s fascinating to discover how the efforts depicted in the movie effectively and quietly impacted everything that happened, and the relationship at the heart of the film between Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky is beautiful.

Benedict Cumberbatch shines as Greville Wynne, delivering a wonderful, empathetic performance.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn in The Courier is a particularly fascinating one, if not simply because of its effectiveness in showcasing a key depth in the star’s talent. We’ve come to know Cumberbatch through his portrayal of showy and bombastic characters like his Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Strange, and notable real life figures like Julian Assange or Alan Turing, but what makes Greville Wynne a standout part for the actor is how totally ordinary the businessman-turned-spy is. He has charm that comes from a career in sales, but that’s the only weapon in his arsenal, and watching the film’s drama play through him it’s exciting to see him handle the fear, and eventually become emboldened by it instead of being weakened – without any dash of “Hollywood.”

Additionally deserving credit for his excellent turn is Merab Ninidze. As much as Greville Wynne is risking in The Courier , Oleg Penkovsky is risking far more, and the blend of emotions that emerges is fantastic to watch. There is terror that lives behind his eyes throughout the performance – both from the potential for nuclear annihilation and consequences of his disloyalty to the Soviet Union – and it’s powerful enough to generate genuine empathy, but what’s far more potent is the genuineness and kindness that is clear in his spirit, evoked through his friendship with the titular character. It’s heartwarming without ever feeling hokey, and adds to the movie’s stakes.

The Courier has a fantastic message for the current moment.

The story of Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky is one incredibly deserving of the big screen treatment for the purposes of getting people to recognize their remarkable life-saving contributions to history – but that’s not the only reason. During a time in modernity that is rife with extreme conflict, it’s nice to see a film that is inherently about two men from entirely different political worlds coming together for the benefit of mankind. It’s a great message that comes wrapped in a solid thriller that features some excellent performances, making The Courier a movie worth seeking out.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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‘The Courier’ Review: Intrigue under a façade of normalcy

Director dominic cooke engages us in espionage by focusing on the people who enact it..

What to Watch Verdict

'The Courier' is an entertaining film for how it pulls together a compelling tale of camaraderie from the auspices of a spy thriller.

💼The central friendship carries the film.

💼Merab Ninidze is a compelling performer.

💼Jessie Buckley turns a tertiary role into a meal.

💼Centering Benedict Cumberbatch's character feels like a mistake.

💼The main theme is the most grating part of the score.

The Courier  is currently only available to watch in theaters (as of March 19, 2021). Due to the  COVID-19  pandemic, we recommend checking it out at your local drive-in. If one isn’t available, please be sure to check out state and CDC guidelines before watching in an enclosed space.

The Courier would always be a difficult film to make feel cinematic in scope in a way that would necessitate the big screen treatment. Yes, it’s a true story that skirts around the nuclear Sword of Damocles that was the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it also depends on most of its action taking place out of sight and with minimal actual discussion of events as they play out. The conundrum of characters needing to act normal at all times means that director Dominic Cooke and screenwriter Tom O’Connor needed to get creative in sharing this tale, and the answer they came to is fairly obvious, but in a manner that many other projects might have bungled. If the actions of the characters cannot be highlighted, then clearly you must highlight the characters themselves, or as is the case here, the travails of the people who lived this scenario.

The titular courier and the man I’ll begrudgingly call the protagonist — more on that in a moment — is Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), a British businessman engaged in establishing international contracts for goods produced in British factories during the early 1960s. Upon learning that a GRU colonel wishes to defect from the Soviet Union and provide state secrets from the Soviet nuclear program, the British and U.S. governments approach Wynne to act as a courier for information to be smuggled out of the country on his business trips. With assurance that his lack of military and espionage experience will make him entirely unsuspicious, Wynne agrees to expand his business to Russia, developing a relationship with the would-be defector, Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze).

Though the premise implies all the hardship of a civilian needing to convincingly lie his way through situations above his experience, Wynne’s lack of knowledge about the contents of his deliveries and his general skill as a businessman make this a virtual non-issue. Instead, the beating heart of the film lies in the humanity shared between Wynne and Penkovsky, whose business relationship blooms into a legitimate friendship and bonds of loyalty to one another. They drink and take trips to the Russian ballet, and in hushed tones they speak of Penkovsky’s future immigration to the U.S., where he ponders that maybe he will be a cowboy. It’s easy to forget that these two are engaging in spycraft and treason as their dialogue and Cooke’s framing suggest that the political divide between Britain and the U.S.S.R. did little to dissuade two like souls from finding shared humanity.

This makes it somewhat frustrating, then, that the bulk of The Courier decides to focus on Wynne’s experiences over Penkovsky’s, especially because Penkovsky is the one shown to actually engage in imminently dangerous activities. Some allowance needs to be made for this film being a British production and for a relative lack of records exploring Penkovsky’s family life, but it feels somewhat disingenuous to frame the friendship as the driving force of the narrative, only for the more actively interesting of the two to inhabit a supporting role. This only becomes more apparent as Ninidze is afforded much more emotional range in his performance than Cumberbatch, who is simply as serviceable as ever.

The difference is made up somewhat in exploring Wynne’s family life, as his troubled wife (Jessie Buckley, making a meal out of a limited role) worries that these constant trips to Russia hint at a relapse into marital infidelity. Exploring the collateral consequences of Wynne’s need to lie about his role as makeshift spy is a solid enough subplot, but we don’t get as much of a view into Wynne’s interior life as nearly anyone around him, making his position as the supposed lead of the film all the more baffling. This truly comes to a head in a protracted third act that, to my knowledge, does reflect what happened to the real Greville Wynne, but is emotionally unearned as it prioritizes the presentation of his suffering over all else, including that friendship with Penkovsky.

Even with that misplaced priority in story economy, The Courier is an entertaining film for how it pulls together a compelling tale of camaraderie from the auspices of a spy thriller. Some narrative choices may be frustrating – as well as some technical ones, such as the obnoxious main theme that layers over the score like they ran out of budget for music and only had a French horn on hand – but the strengths of the underlying conceit are strong enough to carry it through. Ultimately, it’s not about the packages delivered, but it’s about the friends made along the way.

The Courier opens in theaters on March 19, 2021.

Leigh Monson has been a professional film critic and writer for six years, with bylines at Birth.Movies.Death., SlashFilm and Polygon. Attorney by day, cinephile by night and delicious snack by mid-afternoon, Leigh loves queer cinema and deconstructing genre tropes. If you like insights into recent films and love stupid puns, you can follow them on Twitter.

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The Courier Reviews

…The Courier has the right cast and a reasonably novel idea, but the sheer number of clichés eventually undo it’s good intentions…

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 29, 2022

It's mercilessly over-edited action unfolds with a tight-budget fury on two-and-a-half levels of a parking garage, and the result is dull, stupidly violent and dreadfully repetitive.

Full Review | Sep 9, 2020

An almost inert action movie, with London shots that look like taken from archives. [Full review in spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Jan 29, 2020

Ex 'Bond girl' Kurylenko kicks ass against a motley crew of musclebound, tattooed masculinity, with an ironic smile that reminds us this is little more than a fun genre ride - with viciously gory kills.

Full Review | Jan 7, 2020

What you need to know is that most of the action takes place in a London multi-storey car park, some of the supporting performances are dreadful, and that this has no place on anyone's Christmas viewing list.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 23, 2019

Olga Kurylenko's leather-clad action moves can't save this tedious action thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Dec 23, 2019

It rather plays out as if it wanted to be the next blockbuster action film but it just doesn't ever evolve.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 23, 2019

The film makes for a limp and tensionless attempt at on-off drama.

[The Courier is] a leaden action film that lacks both imagination and logic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 21, 2019

Save for the game Kurylenko, it should be bed without supper for everyone involved here.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 20, 2019

Oldman delivers his lines with a strange lethargy and tonelessness, as if - just before speaking - he has just realised that income tax will have to be deducted from his fee.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 18, 2019

Aside from [Olga] Kurylenko's steely presence [Zackary] Adler seems only interested in severe grisliness and macho posturing. If the script had even a hint of character nuance, the movie might have been somewhat gripping too.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 17, 2019

The film is far more entertaining when it doesn't mean to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 16, 2019

Tense action with strong female lead and brutal violence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 3, 2019

There's an opportunity here for a tight, tense actioner, but "The Courier" is only interested in formula, with Adler spending most of the feature short-sheeting potential for suspense.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Nov 26, 2019

Slumming it as the villain in this preposterous thriller, Gary Oldman refuses to take this mess seriously, but his co-stars aren't as fortunate.

Full Review | Nov 22, 2019

Adler and his team of screenwriters have crafted a solid plot... But the locations for these big battles are so cramped and unexciting that even a star as fun to watch as Kurylenko can just barely shine.

Full Review | Nov 21, 2019

In the moronic thriller The Courier, nothing works on any level, but most of all where it matters most-a script that makes sense.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/4 | Nov 21, 2019

Its female-butt-kicker premise notwithstanding, this is another cinematic slab of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Apart from Kurylenko, who's game enough to almost pull off a preposterous role, the name actors are not done any favors here.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Courier’ on VOD, a Sturdy Historical Drama in Which Benedict Cumberbatch Tries to Thwart the Cold War

Where to stream:, the courier (2021), stream it or skip it: ‘the tyrant’ on hulu, a limited series from south korea with spy stuff intrigue and a violent streak , stream it or skip it: ‘mission: cross’ on netflix, a marriage and mission you should choose not to accept, 'the man from u.n.c.l.e.', now streaming on netflix, was a turning point for guy ritchie — and a high point for henry cavill, stream it or skip it: ‘the man from u.n.c.l.e.’ on netflix, a guy ritchie action flick that's all style, style, style.

The Courier stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a man named Greville Wynne, perhaps the only man who ever lived with a name more astoundingly British than Benedict Cumberbatch. Yes, Wynne actually lived — this is a BOATS ( Based On A True Story ) movie, and he was an unassuming British salesman who helped a Russian defector smuggle information out of the Soviet Union, information that had something to do with some missiles in Cuba or something. You know, no big deal. It’s not like their spy shenanigans changed the course of history or anything.

THE COURIER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: “WE WILL BURY THEM!” bellows Nikita Khrushchev, and Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) claps like a good little Soviet. He’s a celebrated war veteran, a colonel with a sackful of medals and a deeply troubled conscience. Khrushchev is impulsive and blustery and, this being 1960, sure seems ready and willing to press the big nuke button. That’s why Penkovsky contacted the enemy, British MI6 guy Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and American CIA lady Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan). He can give them crucial intel on the ins and outs of the Soviets’ nuclear-missile capabilities, and maybe prevent the world from going kablooey. (We can joke about this now, because we’re alive now, and Earth isn’t an ash heap.)

Meanwhile, Greville Wynne misses a putt. On purpose, as it happens, because the lousier his golf game, the better his business. He sells machines and parts for manufacturing, and successfully so, having made many a deal in Eastern Europe. His familiarity with said area of the world, and his superior subterfuge capabilities honed during many years as a salesman — read: he can B.S. with the best of them — makes him a prime candidate to be liaison to Penkovsky. “So you want me to go to Moscow and then…” he says, and Donovan finishes his sentence: “Do business.” Right then. Do business. Business that might cool off the whole bloody Cold War. Why him? Because he’s a little doughy and thoroughly unthreatening and the Russkies will never suspect him. It’ll be a bit tougher than blowing a game of golf, but he agrees.

Wynne keeps his wife, Sheila (Jessie Buckley) and 10-year-old son Andrew (Keir Hills) in the dark, as he must, and brings his machine-parts pitch to Russia. He friendlies up with Penkovsky, who sees the silent signs and acts on them. Penkovsky goes to London, Wynne flies back to Moscow, etc., and there’s a few tense moments with tiny cameras and sensitive documents and little pieces of paper hidden in cigarette packs, and so forth. Thing is, when you’re working in concert to dodge the KGB and smuggle info out of the country, it’s like a ballet dance, and you’ve gotta get close. So Wynne and Penkovsky become friends. They have dinner, get sloshed and go to the Russian ballet together; they even meet each other’s families. Sheila suspects something’s up with her husband, who philandered once before. She has no idea that his fedora is cutting through some Russian air that’s thick with tension — tension that’s about to break.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Courier hit many of the same marks as Bridge of Spies , where Tom Hanks plays the ah-shucks role and Mark Rylance is the troubled skulldugger, and the two of them become unlikely pals.

Performance Worth Watching: Cumberbatch is good of course, because he can do this type of thing in his sleep. I also liked Ninidze a lot; he carries some significant weight as the guy pretending to be a stereotypical Soviet sternface when he’s actually a pacifist. But Buckley — so wonderful in I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Wild Rose — always draws eyes to her performances, and here she brings a lot more to the Concerned Wife role than it likely deserves.

Memorable Dialogue: Sheila gets all droll on the eve of her dear Greville’s first trip to Moscow: “Do stay out of the gulag, darling.”

Sex and Skin: If you’ve ever wanted to see what happens when a guy named Greville jumps his wife’s bones because he’s all invigorated by his new secret life, here you go. Not that we see much of anything, mind you.

Our Take: Director Dominic Cooke gets a little too montage-y at times, and the script goes from lively to workmanlike as the intrigue gets heavy, but beyond that, The Courier is a damn fine watchable 100-minute swatch of historical drama. No new ground is broken, but the film is unexpectedly clever at times and grippingly suspenseful as the spy stuff intensifies. Of course, we’re keenly aware of what happened with the Cuban missile crisis, but not all of us know how the real stories of Wynne and Penkovsky sorted out, and for those, the movie will draw out a few beads of sweat.

The film takes a relatively fresh angle by leaning away from the international cabal and emphasizing the companionship between Wynne and Penkovsky. They get drunk one night and give each other a sloppy hug; they watch Swan Lake side by side and are so swept away by the drama, Wynne’s eyes welling up with tears, and you know they shared something significant together. Ninidze and Cumberbatch find their characters’ commonalities and render them deeply human — Penkovsky shares how he dreams of moving to Montana to become a cowboy when this is all over, and Wynne chuckles a little as he promises to visit him, and we fully believe in this moment, in all its plaintive corniness. The final act brings satisfying closure to their friendship, and it’s a deeper and more meaningful moment than we thought we’d see when we fired up a tweedy period piece 100 minutes earlier. That’s precisely why we stick with The Courier all the way to the end.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Courier is well-acted, sturdily directed and nicely frames an interpersonal story within the considerable stresses of the world around them. It doesn’t break new ground, but it exceeds expectations and is definitely worth your time.

Benedict Cumberbatch turns the Cold War red hot (🔥🔥🔥) in his new movie THE COURIER, now out on VOD. But should you STREAM IT or SKIP IT? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) April 16, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

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Review: The Courier

The Courier , much like its lead carrier played by Benedict Cumberbatch , has gone on a very long journey. The film, originally titled Ironbark , premiered in January 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival and was scooped up for U.S. release by Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate. It was all set to be released in August of 2020 with some hope of getting a few awards come this season thanks to popular leading actors and a cold war tale that the Academy usually eats up.

Then 2020 happened and The Courier kind of faded away into obscurity with the studios seeming to lose interest in any award hopes the film might have had. The move got pushed and pushed until this week when it will finally release in the doldrums of the release schedule at, what we hope is, the tail end of COVID-19’s slow death march of the film industry. Not a very auspicious turn of events for the film, especially since it’s good enough to deserve better.

The Courier Director: Dominic Cooke Rated: PG-13 Release Date: March 19, 2021 ( Theatrical )

The Courier (not to be confused with the 2019 film of the same name) is based on the true story of a British businessman who helped the U.S. and U.K. governments sneak massive amounts of secret information out of Russia. Greville Wynne is an unassuming salesman of sorts who gets sucked into international espionage when Oleg Penkovsky, a high-ranking Russian official, decides that his country is going too far and nuclear war is far too close. The British government, prompted by CIA agent Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), enlists him to travel to Russia under the guise of his job and sneak out documents to help them spy, including the documents that led to the discovery of missiles in Cuba by the U.S., which triggered the Cuban missile crisis.

The film is a classic spy thriller in almost every sense, with every cliche you can possibly think of crammed in there. There’s a meeting in a shadowy parking lot, conversations in theaters, and tense montages as we wonder if our hero will be caught. Thankfully, it also executes these cliches fantastically well and, when the movie veers away from the traditional spy thriller thanks to the fact that both men are eventually caught, it pivots nicely into its more emotional punches, leaving the actors to carry the emotional punches through to the end of the film. The movie may not be entirely original but its story is executed well enough to keep anyone on the edge of their seat.

It helps that director Dominic Cooke stages and shoots much of the film like a play. With his background being in the theater that makes sense, of course, but it doesn’t always translate. Cooke is nearly obsessed with framing throughout the film, placing his actors in clearly demarked areas of the screen that help bolster the tension or drive home the scene’s purpose, much like staging. In one early scene Greville and his wife are conversing, her in the kitchen and him in the living room, the separation hinting not just at the gender roles at the time but also the marital troubles, although at this point the audience knows nothing of them. At another time a subway station bears over Greville and Oleg as they discuss defecting, dwarfing them for a moment and helping visualize the immense pressure they are under.

What also stands out about The Courier is its story is more about relationships than spycraft. The movie spends more time developing Greville and Oleg’s friendship and Greville’s deteriorating homelife than it does on any real spy stuff. It helps keep the film more about the men than the drama and makes the movie’s ending all the more powerful.

<a href=”http://www.flixist.com/?p=33400″>Good</a>Still, the film can’t quite pick up every strand as well as it needs to. Brosnahan is woefully wasted as the CIA agent. The movie hints at her character’s motivations and desires but mostly ignores her, leading to her feeling more like a McGuffin than a character. The film also mishandles its ending as it rushes through Greville’s time in a Russian jail, often seeming to place emotional punches over logical storytelling. The film could have done with ten more minutes or so to play out Greville’s tortures, expand on Brosnahan’s character, and deliver a bit more coherent conclusion overall.

Cumberbatch is, as usual, fantastic. He layers Greville with nuance and conviction, though, judging from the clip of the actual Greville at the end of the film, he’s more interested in playing the part than mimicking the man. It helps to deliver a better film, frankly, and one that’s full of just the right amount of tension and emotion for a true-story spy thriller. The Courier might be getting dumped into a traditional dead zone that’s even deader than usual but that doesn’t mean you should miss it.

The Courier delivers a spy thriller that's not entirely original in execution but works through the will of its actors, its director's eye, and a focus not on spy antics but instead the characters themselves.

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The Courier, review: Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant in one of the most insightful spy movies in years

This cold war espionage thriller has a strong flavour of john le carré.

The Courier is a slow-burning but intriguing espionage thriller with a strong flavour of John le Carré. It is based on the true story of Oleg Penkovsky, a high-ranking Soviet officer, and his surprising partnership with British businessman Greville Wynne, who helped him to smuggle top-secret information about nuclear missiles in Cuba to the British and Americans.

Benedict Cumberbatch excels as Wynne, a charming but seedy salesman with a Terry-Thomas moustache and a dress sense resembling that of old Grandstand presenter Frank Bough.

It is the early 60s and Wynne is relatively happily married to Sheila (Jessie Buckley). He can hold his alcohol and knows how to charm potential clients, either with his deferential patter or by letting them beat him on the golf course. As for secret work, his only experience in this field is trying (and failing) to keep his wife from finding out about an old affair.

Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), is one of the Soviet top brass. He has become increasingly perturbed by the aggressive behaviour of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and worries that Western leaders are blind to his real nature.

One of the pleasures of the film is its nuanced observation of early 60s British and Russian society. Both have their own hierarchies and hidden codes. Wynne is moderately successful selling factory equipment in eastern Europe but still lives in humble circumstances. London apartments as depicted here don’t look any more luxurious than those in Moscow.

Once Wynne is recruited by MI6 to travel to the Soviet Union and become Penkovsky’s courier, the film develops into an unlikely, stiff-upper-lipped buddy movie. The Englishman and his Russian contact go out drinking and to the ballet together. They come from very different backgrounds but they have the same basic decency.

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The brilliance of Cumberbatch’s performance lies in the way he conveys both Wynne’s venality and his idealism. He is an opportunist with an eye for the main chance but Penkovsky’s courage rubs off on him.

This may be a spy movie but it is a long way removed from the world of James Bond. Rather than sex, cars and gadgets, it shows Wynne passing on his secret information by hiding messages in corners of public lavatories.

Late on, the tone changes dramatically. The film becomes far harsher and darker. The wry humour and sardonic observation of the earlier scenes are forgotten as the protagonists face real dangers.

Some of the storytelling might be on the contrived side but The Courier ranks with Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies as one of the subtlest and most insightful spy movies of recent years.

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The courier (2024).

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 0 Reviews
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Common Sense Media Review

Forgettable thriller has language, nudity, and violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Courier is a Spanish thriller based on a real story. There are plenty of scenes in which characters, including police officers, use guns to threaten people's lives. A main character is beaten up and left bruised. There are several sex scenes in which women's breasts are seen, and…

Why Age 15+?

Several sex scenes in which women's breasts are shown. Iván and his friends go t

"F--k," "f--ker," "motherf--ker," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "damn."

Social drinking, cigarette smoking, and unidentified drugs used socially and dur

Plenty of scenes in which characters, including police officers, use guns to thr

Any Positive Content?

Pursuing a way to have a more fulfilling life and help those around you, but usi

Iván has good intentions but doesn't always choose the best way to put them into

Most of the cast and crew are White, and the lead and most of the supporting cha

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Several sex scenes in which women's breasts are shown. Iván and his friends go to strip clubs where women dance topless. Several scenes in which Iván is shirtless.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Social drinking, cigarette smoking, and unidentified drugs used socially and during sex scenes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Plenty of scenes in which characters, including police officers, use guns to threaten people's lives. Iván is beaten up and is left bruised.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Pursuing a way to have a more fulfilling life and help those around you, but using the right methods, as opposed to the easiest ones.

Positive Role Models

Iván has good intentions but doesn't always choose the best way to put them into action. He lacks integrity and compassion but often shows courage to maintain his way of life. Francisco is a villain who lacks any scruples and will do anything to remove his enemies from his path.

Diverse Representations

Most of the cast and crew are White, and the lead and most of the supporting characters are young and fit conventional standards. Characters of color, including Yannick (Nourdin Batan who is of North African descent) and several East Asian unnamed characters, all play criminals. Women are portrayed as objects of male desire, or as helpless and waiting to be rescued by men.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Courier is a Spanish thriller based on a real story. There are plenty of scenes in which characters, including police officers, use guns to threaten people's lives. A main character is beaten up and left bruised. There are several sex scenes in which women's breasts are seen, and the characters visit strip clubs. Strong language includes "f--k," "f--ker," "motherf--ker," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," and "damn." Some social drinking and smoking, as well as stronger unidentified drugs during sex scenes. In terms of diversity, most of the cast and crew are White, and the lead and most of the supporting characters are young and fit conventional standards. Characters of color, including Yannick (Nourdin Batan who is of North African descent) and several East Asian unnamed characters, all play criminals. Women are portrayed as objects of male desire, or as helpless and waiting to be rescued by men. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In THE COURIER, Iván (Arón Piper), a lower middle-class valet living in Spain, sees an opportunity to become a courier for money launderers between several European countries. The film follows his rise and fall as he becomes a powerful agent taking advantage of the real estate bubble, but gaining a powerful enemy in Francisco (Luis Tosar), who sees him as a powerful competitor.

Is It Any Good?

From The Fast and the Furious to Bonnie and Clyde , films that glamorize crime have existed as long as the medium has been around. Despite its constant thrills, Daniel Calparsoro's The Courier isn't likely to leave a mark once its credits roll. Arón Piper is charismatic and seductive as Iván, a lower middle-class valet who sees and seizes an opportunity to become a courier for money launderers across Europe to avoid ending bitter and impoverished like his idealistic father (Antonio Buíl).

But his rise and fall are ridden with clichés and genre stereotypes (how many strip clubs can an aspiring crime lord visit in a single film?) that dazzle but fail to fulfill beyond the film's fast-paced runtime. There is a juicier story in The Courier that deals with how the rich are often left unscathed in games of power and corruption, but that's not the tale Calparsoro is interested in delving in, instead delivering something as vapid as Iván's dreams.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the path Iván chooses to follow in The Courier. Is his career choice the best way to avoid becoming like his father? Why or why not?

The film is based on a true story. Does it embellish the crime or does it show real-life consequences? Does it balance both?

Both Francisco and Iván follow a life of crime. Does the film portray them both as villains or heroes? Does it make you root for one and not the other? How so?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : May 10, 2024
• Cast : Arón Piper , Luis Tosar , Luis Zahera
• Director : Daniel Calparsoro
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 101 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : July 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'The Killer' Review: David Fincher Lends His Style to a Lackluster Plot

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The Big Picture

• The Killer , David Fincher's highly anticipated film, falls short due to a hollow plot and uninspired writing, reminding us that even legendary directors can fall prey to a bad script.
• The plot of The Killer , centered around an assassin seeking revenge, is nothing new or original, resembling other action movies like John Wick or Taken .
• While Fincher's signature style is apparent and the cast delivers solid performances, the lack of character development and an engaging story make The Killer a disappointment compared to Fincher's previous works.

This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 London Film Festival.

There is absolutely no arguing that David Fincher is one of the greatest filmmakers ever . Se7en is an all-time murder-mystery thriller, Gone Girl is an adaptation that captures the brilliance of its source material and then some, and Zodiac might just be the definitive serial killer movie. Yes, Fincher is flying high and has become a master of the Hollywood thriller. But when you’re flying that high, so are expectations. The Killer , his second production with Netflix, is easily one of the most anticipated films of the year. This is in some part due to its A-list lead, audience-pleasing plot, and promise of action and violence (you know, universally beloved things to see on the big screen). But there is only one thing you really need to say to get someone interested: “It’s the new Fincher.” If The Killer teaches us anything, it’s that any director, no matter how legendary they are, can fall victim to a bad script. While Fincher’s iconic style permeates the two-hour runtime, the hollow plot and uninspired writing are impossible to ignore.

The Killer (2023)

A professional hitman’s world spirals out of control after a mission fails, thrusting him into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Forced to confront his own vulnerabilities, he navigates a maze of betrayal and danger to stay alive.

What Is 'The Killer' About?

Right from the start, we are drawn into the very detailed and neurotic stream of consciousness of Michael Fassbender ' s assassin. We watch him sleep sitting upright on the construction site of a Paris WeWork. As he laments on all topics from philosophy to politics to morality, we see his very tight, meticulous routine. He depends on his smartwatch to monitor his heart rate. He only wears clothes that will make him look like every other tourist. He eats a McDonald's breakfast but not the bread. Everything is completely intentional, and nothing is left to chance. This makes the kicker of the plot all that more shocking . When he misses his target and accidentally kills a civilian, he races against the clock to clean up the mess he has just made. However, there is a protocol for things like this. It results in the Killer’s partner being assaulted to within an inch of her life. This is where the plot takes a very Taken -esque turn. The Killer must go down the pecking order of all those involved in his partner’s attack, and make sure every last one of them violently pays the price.

Yeah, it really is as simple and derivative as the title would have you think. Avenging the attack of a loved one ? Isn't that the basis for 90% of action movies? It’s John Wick but if the woman lived. It’s Taken without the daughter or kidnapping. Based on the book by French author Alexis “Matz” Nolent , The Killer is a reminder that not all books are rife for a movie adaptation. Reading the inner workings of an assassin may serve as an enthralling insight into a world most of us will never come into contact with . But watching it play out is a whole other story. Narration is a brilliant tool that can transplant the audience into the mind of a character; but when you rely on it too much, it brings the strength of the script into question.

'The Killer' Has a Hollow Plot

The Killer flies all over the world to find those responsible; from the two people who executed the attack to the lawyer who gave the order to the client who started this mess in the first place. The Killer is always on the move, leaving no trace. He has a new name and ID every time he flies or hires a car. It is entertaining to see how a whole other world can operate amongst all of us normies . The Killer flies coach, he gets coffee from Starbucks, but he also has absolutely no issue in taking down innocent civilians. “Empathy is weakness,” Fassbender’s narration (which carries through right to the end) tells us as the Killer breaks necks and shoots right for the head. “I serve no God or country.” The Killer is not one we can see any part of ourselves in. Just when we think he’ll spare a witness or break his promise of no empathy, he reiterates again and again that there is no room for an ounce of morality. “What would John Wilkes Booth Do?” he asks himself as he goes on the run.

Fincher’s style is apparent throughout, and that does offer some semblance of a decent thriller . The sound design is brilliant, mixing uncomfortable diegetic noise with The Smiths’ greatest hits . We are completely drawn into the psyche of a sociopath, and we are not given any break until the credits roll. But is that psyche all that interesting? The novelty wears off after half an hour and we’re left with a character whose motivations we can’t understand or identify with. While he declares he has no empathy, he’s going to all these great lengths for the woman he loves. Yet, we see none of this relationship, we’re given no way to care about his actions. At least Taken did some work to establish the loving and protective relationship Liam Neeson ’s protagonist has with his daughter, so we understand his actions (even though they are in no way justified). Fassbender’s killer is the blank slate for all assassin characters. There are no intimate details or characterizations that set him apart from the thousands of others just like him.

Assassins, because they're no average Joe, can be some of cinema's most interesting protagonists . We get drawn into an alien world, led by a person we have nothing in common with. The stakes are high and all bets are off as to what may happen! But that shouldn't mean that they get a free pass in terms of further characterization. Their job title isn't enough to carry an entire film. A bit more effort into crafting a protagonist that goes beyond their vocation would have gone a long way, especially since The Killer is all about well, the Killer. I'm sure Fassbender's performance is exactly what Fincher wanted and what the script asks of him, but after 30 minutes, it's just so hard to care about a person and his motivations when we're given no reason to.

'The Killer' Doesn't Compare to David Fincher's Other Movies

There are a few links to other Fincher movies that fans will enjoy . Fincher’s interest in humanity’s obsession with commercialism is very much present . Your favorite brands pop up here and there and we see a few nods to how capitalism has destroyed our society, leaving room for people like the Killer to swoop in and take charge. An everyday office worker begs for her death to be staged as an accident so her children can benefit from her life insurance. These work to somewhat familiarize the world of The Killer , reinforcing the fear that monsters like these walk among us.

The cast works well despite the material not helping them all that much. Fassbender puts on an empty, dead-inside facade and it works perfectly for a man who has to become invisible at a moment’s notice . Kerry O'Malley does a brilliant job of injecting the film with some humanism as the desperate Dolores who becomes collateral damage in the Killer's quest for vengeance. Tilda Swinton , to no one’s surprise, makes the absolute most of her one sequence. But it also teases what a better film this could have been if we were allowed more time with other characters. Yes, this is the Killer’s world but he is not a character that can carry a two-hour movie. Though Fincher is not known for his action sequences, there is one fight scene that takes place in a Florida home that is electrifying from start to finish. Again, a little look inside a parallel world where this movie could have been so much more.

David Fincher will probably never make an out-and-out “bad” movie . His style is just too iconic, too intentional, and too well-crafted. However, style only goes so far and it requires a decent story to latch itself onto so it can be carried all the way home. Because Fincher has lent it to stories from Gillian Flynn , a real-life serial killer who shook the world , and the founding of a company that changed society as we know it today, The Killer falls miles behind in the legacy of one of cinema’s greatest minds.

The Killer is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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