Rating: C+
Dir: Vladimir Bortko
Star: Fedor Bondarchuk, Liam Cunningham, Daniil Spivakovskiy, Malcolm McDowell
a.k.a. Dusha shpiona
The West’s relationship with the country of Russia been complex for over a century. First, there was a revolution where we backed the losing side. Then there was World War II, when they were first neutral, before becoming our allies, paying a savage price measured in tens of millions of deaths. The Cold War saw them become global villains, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and they became just like us. Oh, hang on. They invaded Ukraine. They’re the bad guys again. So this being a Russian film, made from a Russian perspective, helps make it a fresh take on the spy genre, though it is much more John Le Carre cynicism than James Bond escapism.
The central character is Alex Fyodorov (Bondarchuk), a career intelligence operative who has grown weary of the spy game in the post-Communist world, and whose marriage back in Russia is falling apart. His current task is cultivating British MP Henry Baxton (McDowell). But Fyodorov decides he has had enough of the lies, deceit and murder required by the job, and switches sides, being handled by CIA officer Ray Hillsman (Cunningham, sporting an unexpected and not entirely convincing American accent). Or does he? For it could also be a Russian plan to uncover a mole in their own organization, and hunt down previous defector Eugene Lander (Spivakovskiy), who is now hiding out in Cairo. Or, indeed, both things could be true. You won’t know until the very end.
It’s this atmosphere of paranoid distrust which is the film’s strongest element. Everyone has an entire slew of agendas, and is more than willing to use, or indeed sacrifice, anybody else to achieve those goals. Things are rarely what they seem, and never straightforward: by the end, you find yourself questioning everything. For example, when someone fakes a request from Baxton to meet Fyodorov, then takes a pot-shot at the Russian agent, the question is not just who or why. I also wondered whether the failure was deliberate, rather than simple incompetence. However, the atmosphere is somewhat derailed by poor audio quality. The dialogue is fine, but in the version streaming on Tubi, the background foley work has an odd echo effect, that is awkward and something of a distraction.
The film certainly racks up air miles, bouncing around from Russia to London, Switzerland and Egypt. It also moves back and forth in time, though Bortko does a good job of keeping things coherent. French actress Sandrine Bonnaire shows up alongside McDowell and Cunningham, to add international sales appeal sorry, enhance the cosmopolitan air. Not all the performances are even; McDowell on occasion goes further over the top than needed. Admittedly, that’s kinda his usual approach. However, Bondarchuk is the core around which everything resolves. He’s about the only one here with a moral code, and puts a human face on what could otherwise have been not much more than spy chess.