Film Review - The Courier (2021)

There’s a new Benedict Cumberbatch film out and it isn’t Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, or any other MCU offering that is on the horizon. Alas, the wait for those small indie films will go on a little longer, but when he isn’t saving the world with his crazy hand gestures and posturing, he’s usually hard at work in reality and after a long delay for obvious reasons, his latest has arrived. And while it might appear in cinemas without as much fanfare as the “theme park” films, it’s another in a long line that reminds us just how good he can be.

Recounting a true story, Cumberbatch stars as Greville Wynne, a British engineer and businessman whose exploits have seen MI6 take notice and they offer him the chance to help defuse the rising Cuban Missile Crisis, not that he is privy to all the information. A family man hesitant to leave his settled life with his wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) and young son Andrew (Keir Hills), he reluctantly accepts and soon forms an unlikely partnership with a Soviet officer named Oleg Penkovsky (Mirab Ninidze) who MI6 believe has intel that will help prevent total nuclear annihilation on both sides.

On the surface, this may seem like your standard Cold War/Cuban Missile Crisis fare – heck, how many times have we been here before? From Dr. Strangelove, Bridge of Spies, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – ironically, featuring Cumberbatch – and even X-Men: First Class when Michael Fassbender’s Magneto lifted submarines and warships into the air, it has always been a great source for dramatics and thrills because, while this writer wasn’t alive at the time, the likelihood of nuclear war cast a long and deadly shadow. It wasn’t a nice time from what we’ve heard, but while those films focused on the anxieties of the opposing forces, The Courier is smaller in its scope without ignoring the potentially deadly circumstances that surround it.

Ostensibly, this is a slight story about two men who form the most unlikely of friendships that, as it grew, so did the severity of the dangers around them. It might not sound like the most riveting of movies, but under Dominic Cooke’s (On Chesil Beach) controlled, almost intimate direction, Tom O’Connor’s delicate screenplay that touches on much of the political machinations and social concerns, and Sean Bobbitt’s beautifully monochrome cinematography, it certainly feels as dramatic as those aforementioned even if doesn’t quite hit the higher notes it aims for.

Cumberbatch, ever the chameleon these days when he can be as riveting and audacious talking to another person in a room as he can be saving the universe from purple titans, is on exemplary form here as Wynne that is amongst his strongest work. Alongside him is an exemplary ensemble, with a superb turn from Ninidze as Penkovsky as well as strong support from the ever-brilliant Brosnahan and Buckley.

While it might not have the propulsive narrative of some of the other notable films that have tackled this subject, The Courier is a solid, unflashy yet delicate drama about friendship amongst supposed enemies that makes us think twice about how we can overcome conflict, even with insurmountable odds. Fuelled by its riveting performances and touching undercurrent, this one we certainly sneak up on you.