7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Angus Wright, Miles RichardsonBiography | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Period | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
History | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
There's that old well worn maxim that there is no honor among thieves, but can there be friendship among spies, or at least between a spy and a supposed "businessman"? The Courier deals with a rather interesting sidebar to the Cold War, documenting the real life story of an English businessman named Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch, finally playing someone with a name as unusual as his). Wynne was recruited by MI6 (with perhaps a little help from the CIA) to help pass secrets from the Soviet Union to the West under the guise of Wynne establishing business ties in Moscow. Wynne's relationship with a Soviet colonel named Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), who worked in "military intelligence", was part of that subterfuge, since Wynne and Penkovsky pretended it was all about business, when in fact Penkovsky was doing his best to keep the West apprised of the Soviet Union's nuclear ambitions, in an attempt to stave off a World War III holocaust. Wynne's story has been told before, notably in a mid-eighties BBC miniseries appropriately originally called Wynne and Petrovsky, but which was evidently later broadcast under the title of one of Wynne's own memoirs, The Man from Moscow. The Courier gives the story a kind of high gloss treatment, but it's still surprisingly visceral and gives Cumberbatch another opportunity to create a rather memorable characterization.
The Courier is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexas and a 4K DI as relevant data points, and the result is an often beautifully burnished but still well detailed looking presentation. There are various grading techniques employed, as can be made out in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, and some actual desaturation, as in the opening vignette involving Khrushchev, but on the whole detail levels remain secure and fine detail is often very impressive. Any number of interior scenes are frequently bathed in yellow light, and while there's perhaps a hint of what I've termed "Alexa murk", it's really pretty minimal, and I was repeatedly struck with the amount of detail that is able to peek through in even rather dim sequences.
The Courier offers a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that may not have a glut of "wow" sonics, but which consistently engages the side and rear channels with artfully placed ambient environmental effects and Abel Korzeniowski's score. Even relatively tamped down dialogue scenes, as in some of the early material with Wynne and his MI6 and CIA contacts offer nice background spill in environments like dining rooms. A couple of shocking moments, as with the execution of a supposed spy that Penkovsky has to witness, offer bursts of low end energy that may provoke a startle response. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
At almost the exact moment when Oleg Penkovsky and Greville Wynne were careening down a calamitous path toward arrest, my own family had its own "Soviet spy scandal" to deal with when a late uncle of mine, an Air Force captain, was being court martialed and eventually convicted of having provided information to the Soviet Union via an intermediary in East Germany. This unfortunately was right when my father (my uncle's older brother) had been nominated for a promotion to Major General in the United States Army, so suffice it to say there was quite a bit of drama, with front page news stories published across the nation and none other than Walter Winchell calling it the biggest spy story since Alger Hiss (it turned out to be considerably more mundane in the long run, though my uncle did do time at Leavenworth before his conviction was overturned). That "family history" made parts of this film arguably more visceral for me than they may be for others, but one way or the other The Courier is a fascinating peek into a largely unknown nook and/or cranny of history. Technical merits are solid, and The Courier comes Recommended.
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