This is an interesting attempt at making a “real” spy movie, one where the spies behave like real spies, without car chases, without shoot-outs, without super-intense interrogation scenes.

For the most part it works, but there are enough problems with the finished product that I can’t quite recommend it. Like Argo, it takes liberties with the truth but unlike Argo, it is not quite suspenseful enough. I bring up Argo only because I think it serves as a good comparison of a more successful film of a similar type.

The biggest problem with this film, I think, is that it’s scope is too big – Reagan and Mitterand make appearances and they are totally unnecessary. (As is, I think, the rather odd attempt to connect this story with a “bluff” about the Star Wars program, given that the Star Wars program was a real thing and not just a bluff.) I think the whole background with Dafoe’s character and the presidents takes away from the main story of the film. I also feel like the film could have been cut a little better.

But it’s still an interesting attempt at making a spy thriller we can actually believe.

7/10

• Directed by Christian Carion
• Produced by Philip Boëffard, Bertrand Faivre, Christophe Rossignon
• Written by Christian Carion
• Starring
  • Emir Kusturica – Sergei Grigoriev (based on Vladimir Vetrov)
  • Guillaume Canet – Pierre Froment, an engineer working in the Moscow branch of French electronics conglomerate Thomson-CSF
  • Alexandra Maria Lara – Jessica, his wife
  • Willem Dafoe – Feeney, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
  • Fred Ward – U.S. President Ronald Reagan
  • Philippe Magnan – President François Mitterrand of France
  • Niels Arestrup – Vallier, Director of French Security DST
  • David Soul – Hutton, aide to President Reagan
  • Ingeborga Dapkunaite – Natasha, Grigoriev’s wife
  • Dina Korzun – Alina, Grigoriev’s colleague and mistress
  • Yevgeni Vasilyevich Kharlanov – Igor, the Grigorievs’ son
  • Christian Sandström – Federal Bureau of Investigation agent
  • Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Gary Lewis and Alex Ferns make cameos
• Music by Clint Mansell
• Cinematography by Walther van den Ende
• Edited by Andrea Sedlácková
• Production company: Canal+
• Distributed by Pathé
• Release date: September 4, 2009
• Running time: 113 minutes
• Country: France
• Language: French, Russian, English
• Budget: $21 million
• Box office: $7.4 million