THE COURIER
Cert 12A ★★★ In cinemas now
Depending on your viewing habits, Benedict Cumberbatch is either TV’s Sherlock Holmes or Marvel’s mystical genius Doctor Strange.
Here, the talented British actor comes back to earth in a quietly absorbing true story about a regular guy who was one of the Cold War’s accidental heroes.
“If this mission were dangerous, you really are the last person we would send,” says MI6 agent Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) as he hands Cumberbatch’s balding, English salesman Greville Wynne a seemingly straightforward assignment.
It’s 1960 and Greville has made his money importing Western goods into communist Europe. Franks wants him to head to Moscow, knock back a few vodkas with the affable Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) and seal a deal for exporting machine parts.
If all goes well, Greville is to invite Oleg back to London as part of a trade delegation, get his comrades hammered and then sneak away to a secret rendezvous with ruthless CIA agent Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan).
As the Cuban Missile Crisis develops, Greville’s business grows increasingly risky as he becomes a courier tasked with smuggling nuclear secrets out of Moscow.
Shot in dull greys and set mostly in dowdy corridors, the film lacks the glamour or intrigue of more high-octane spy thrillers. But Cumberbatch is excellent as a well-meaning everyman who has to dig very deep to find his inner super spy.