THE COURIER
Benedict Cumberbatch swaps supreme sorcery for scrappy spycraft.
FILM OUT 19 MARCH CINEMAS
If you’ve ever wondered how plausible James Bond’s Universal Exports cover story was, this is the film for you. In Dominic Cooke’s real-life espionage drama, it’s the fact that businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) isn’t actually a spy which makes him the perfect candidate for ferrying messages to, and bringing confidential documents from, Soviet traitor Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze).
Wynne’s intentionally anonymous adventures (mostly involving him wining and dining trade delegations) are closer to the work of the late John Le Carré than 007. With one crucial difference – because this is a true story, there are few narrative surprises. Indeed, Wynne is deliberately kept in the dark by Rachel Brosnahan’s CIA handler, limiting us to his immediate experience.
Still, it’s a fascinating insight into the everyday jeopardy of the Cold War during the early ’60s, with the escalating threat of nuclear war – and the bromance
between Wynne and Penkovsky – adding flavour to somewhat stolid storytelling.
The biggest plus is a tailor-made role for Cumberbatch as an apparently model gentleman yearning for excitement, even arousing the suspicions of his wife (an underused Jessie Buckley) about his secret life. As Wynne gradually immerses himself in his role, so Cumberbatch’s prim persona loosens up; but it’s when things inevitably take a turn for the worse that the star truly impresses, with a committed and startling physical transformation. Simon Kinnear