The Courier (2020)

★ 7.0 1h 52m 1,314 votes IMDb

Drama Thriller History

Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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Director Dominic Cooke

Cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Angus Wright, Kirill Pirogov, Iva Šindelková, Vladimir Chuprikov, Fred Haig, Emma Penzina

sykobanana 8/10 May 09, 2021

Cumberbatch shines in this 1960's Cold War spy thriller. This movie is worth watching just for Cumberbatch's performance alone (this is probably his best so far), but he is also backed up by the talented Brosnahan and Ninidze.

This film doesnt run at a fast pace, but if you have patience, it is a little known and extremely rewarding part of history. (More Bridge of Spies than Tom Clancy).

JPV852 8/10 Jun 12, 2021

Well made and suspense-filled historical-thriller with another great performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Doesn't exactly have an emotional impact but still well worth checking out. **3.75/5**

r96sk 9/10 Mar 25, 2022

Excellent!

It's not quite '<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/bridge-of-spies/" rel="nofollow">Bridge of Spies</a>', but 'The Courier' is too an awesome MI6/CIA/KGB infused flick. The two films tell tales regarding the Cold War, with the 2015 release narrowly a notch above this. Both have outstanding lead performances though.

Benedict Cumberbatch is magnificent throughout, especially towards the end - the bald look suits him incredibly well, I must say... need him in a drug kingpin sorta role looking like that! In all seriousness though, I think this is my favourite Cumberbatch performance (from what I've seen thus far) - utterly brilliant!

Merab Ninidze (also in BoS, albeit minorly) also puts in a top display, as he does in television's '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMafia" rel="nofollow">McMafia</a>'. Jessie Buckley also gives a performance of note, which says a lot about her acting abilities given she doesn't feature all that heavily.

Astutely paced, builds terrific tension and features some cracking acting. Fantastic film!