A trailer for The Courier is out. Directed by Dominic Cooke, the film is based on a true story about a British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), who was tasked by British and US external intelligence agencies, MI6 and CIA, for a spy mission to deliver Soviet secrets due to his frequent travels to Eastern Europe.
Greville’s source of information was Oleg Penkovsky, a British mole in Soviet intelligence machinery. The duo’s collaboration led to the defusal of Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that might have turned the world into a nuclear wasteland.
Greville was not an actual spy, just somebody whose job was to carry and deliver information. Thus, ‘courier’ in the title.
The Courier looks like a thriller with the pace of your regular drama. Benedict Cumberbatch has shown some incredible talent at portraying complex, real people, and here, too the actor looks like he is just the right man for the role. At first, his Greville is perplexed that he, of all people, would be approached for an important mission like this. Over time, he becomes highly committed to his job, while keeping in mind the gravity and perilour nature of it.
The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival last year and received positive reviews. It holds a score of 82 per cent after 17 reviews.
The official synopsis reads, “THE COURIER is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
The Courier releases in UK and US theatres on March 19.
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