(Newser)
– Benedict Cumberbatch stars as an English salesman recruited by the British and American intelligence services to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War in The messenger, based on the true story of a Greville Wynne. Friday, the film, which aired at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 with the title Ironbark—It has 80% of Rotten Tomatoes’ criticism. This is what they say:
- “The messenger gives Cumberbatch another meaty role, and the actor adapts to it too comfortably, “offering a meticulous performance,” writes Gary M. Kramer at the Salon. He wants more attention to be paid to Oleg Penkovsky, the Soviet agent who uses Wynne to transfer intelligence to the West, played by a “solid” Merab Ninidze, and while Kramer criticizes the film’s “off” nature, “the bromance that develops between Greville and Penkovsky is appealing.”
- “The Cuban missile crisis could appear in the background, but we barely feel its threat,” as director Dominic Cooke “is unable to generate tension or simply decides not to,” Jeannette Catsoulis writes in New York News. Unfortunately, the film “stubbornly resists getting involved or affecting us until it’s almost over,” he writes. “At that point, though, you may have fallen asleep.”
- However, Mick LaSalle didn’t seem to get much sleep. “As the pressures on Wynne increase and the missions become more dangerous, the spectacle of this average man trying to stay safe becomes fascinating,” he writes in Chronicle of San Francisco, applauding Cumberbatch’s “hard work.” He adds: “Tom O’Connor’s screenplay touches on all the right notes and Dominic Cooke’s direction reveals subtleties of the characters and their interactions.”
- Ann Hornaday argues that “modesty and carefully managed ambitions define her strong suit at a time when these films are becoming increasingly scarce.” It’s “huge fun in its first hour and a half, while Cumberbatch makes the most of his good humor” before a darker shift that “isn’t always as elegant as it had been before.” Still, it’s a “good” movie, Hornaday concludes Washington Post.
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