The Courier

At the tensest point of the Cold War, the British businessman Greville Wynne is put to work by MI6 and the CIA as a courier to Moscow. His contact is Oleg Penkovsky, an officer of Soviet military intelligence. Wynne is not a trained agent but an ordinary salesman, and as the job grows he understands the scale of the risk late. Dominic Cooke directed. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wynne and Merab Ninidze plays Penkovsky, with Rachel Brosnahan as a CIA officer, Jessie Buckley as Wynne's wife and Angus Wright as Dickie Franks of MI6. The story is true. It was shot in London between October and December 2018. It premiered at Sundance on 24 January 2020 under the title Ironbark; the US release was pushed to 19 March 2021 by the pandemic. It took 26 million dollars worldwide, with 1.9 million in its US opening weekend. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 85 percent. The Washington Post called it a smart, stylish stand for the kind of old-fashioned period spy thriller increasingly being turned into bingeable series. Merab Ninidze was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2020 British Independent Film Awards. Who it is for: viewers who like spy films built on real events and Cold War tension. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action. Almost all of it happens in hotel rooms, restaurants and glances.