Farewell (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆

Farewell (2009) – C. Carion

I’m a sucker for Cold War spy dramas, although I recognise that really good specimens are rare (and I am not sure I have seen any other French ones). Farewell, the code name for this adventure, takes place in the early ‘80s just before perestroika and Gorbachev’s ensuing glasnost policies.  Indeed, the Soviet official (played expertly by Emir Kusturica, a director in his own right) turning over information to the French secret service claims to be doing so because he loves his country and wants to see reforms.  The film is not a complicated political thriller nor a cat-and-mouse chase between the authorities and the mole; instead it is partly a buddy film (the Soviet source and the French engineer who is his contact, played by Guillaume Canet) and partly a study of the impact of this high stakes leak on their relationships with their wives and children. Once the Americans get involved (Reagan is played somewhat jarringly by Fred Ward, with David Soul and Willem Dafoe by his side), the pressure on the protagonists becomes too much.  Yet, despite its promise and the solid acting throughout, the result is rather middling. I’m not sure what I was expecting but perhaps it takes too long to get there.