Movies Reviews

Farewell - Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson Jul 22, 2010, 23:06 GMT

Moscow , 1981. A KGB agent decides to break with the system. With the help of a French engineer , he participated in one of the biggest historical events of the century : the collapse of the Soviet bloc. ...more

A realistic and grounded spy thriller that sheds the Hollywood and drills down to the real people and events of the most famous spy story in history.

Emerging director Christian Carion made a big splash with his Cesar nominated “Merry Christmas” in 2005. He follows that with another stirring tale of international brotherhood in the context of international espionage. This is a heavyweight story based on the true chain of events that led to the crash of the USSR in the early 1980’s.

The Farewell affair, as it came to be known, centers on top KGB spy Sergei Gregoriev who decides to end the cold war his own way. He has access to an incredible amount of top-secret information and he knows how to get access to a lot more. He has lost all faith in the USSR and its ersatz communism decides to turn the information over to the West to force the collapse and subsequent rebirth of the Soviet empire.

Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet in Farewell (c) 2010 Neoclassics Films Ltd. Under License

Emir Kusturica provides a masterful performance as an archenemy of the West who has a traumatic change of heart. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, he decides to expose the fundamental of Soviet intelligence network. This includes the identities of countless KGB agents solidly entrenched in critical positions in the West. As the agents are exposed and expelled in the following years the USSR topples in unison.

Kusturica was a great find for this part. He is an internationally renowned director with awards and nominations for the Cesar and at Cannes. More to the point, he is an accomplished actor also applauded for such work as his performance as the drunken Ariel Neel Auguste who undergoes a miraculous transformation in “The Widow of Saint-Pierre.”

It is important that Kusturica bring gravity to his part as the disillusioned spook because writer/director Carion refuses to make this story into just another escapist Hollywood fantasy. He insists that the story not only be true to the facts but true to the emotions, misgivings and confusion of the protagonists. In most intelligence operations even those involved don’t have all the facts.

This produces world-class stress levels, not because the players have to face death but because they don’t know what they have to face.

By the way, for those of you lucky enough to see this film, pay close attention in the beginning. The story sequence is cryptic, to say the least. Chance meetings are unexplained as are the passing relationships that come and go throughout the film. Only Willem Dafoe’s explanation in the character of CIA chief Feeney sums thing up in the end.

Gregoriev needs a conduit to get information out. He has to choose a complete outsider, someone not being closely watched by the KGB but someone with enough clout to get the information verified and garner the required support. He grabs a businessman (Pierre, played by Guillaume Canet) not associated with the intelligence establishment but who can make connections.

Willem Dafoe and Guillaume Canet in Farwell (c) 2010 Neoclassics Films Ltd. Under License

This imperils not only Gregoriev’s family but Pierre’s as well. Guillaume Canet is an accomplished director, having won at Cannes for his mystery thriller “Tell No One.”

This must have been quite a ride for director Carion to be directing two award-winning directors who are themselves accomplished actors, but the result is a grounded, down to earth spy story. The film not only tells it like it is, it puts the audience in the place of the undercover agents as their world collapses around them.

Although a tense and engaging thriller, this film is appropriate for the entire family from teenagers on up. There is no bloodshed although there are a few graphic scenes of interrogation.

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Directed by: Christian Carion
Written by: Christian Carion and Serguei Kostine (book)
Starring: Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet
Release: July 23, 2010
MPAA: Not Rated
Runtime: 113 minutes
Country: France
Language: French / English / Russian
Color: Color