Philip Kimberley, a star of the British Secret Service, was a double agent for the USSR. Now living in Russia as the owner of a small pension and some hollow titles, he spends much of his time reminiscing about his former glory and getting drunk on vodka. Given radical plastic surgery, he is "persuaded", by a combination of carrots and sticks, to go back to Britain. He is supposed to retrieve a critically important list of names...
It is pretty clear that the movie (and, I suppose, the book it was based on) was inspired by the affair of the "Cambridge Five" and, more specifically, by the two-faced career of Kim Philby. It's not a bad movie, although it requires some solid suspension of disbelief : it's not what one could call a business-like and factual take on the world of espionage. At moments it even feels comical, with its over-reliance on accents and disguises.
The movie does not shine by its relentless logic, either. There was at least one plot development which left me speechless. It went like this. A young woman receives a serious, credible warning that she is in great danger from the KGB, which will try to kidnap or interrogate her. She is also advised to leave her little flat immediately. As a result she leaves her flat and checks into another place. However, she also visits a female friend (a kind, decent person) and invites her to go and live in the flat, without giving her any kind of warning or explanation. Twenty minutes later or so into the movie, the young woman is surpised, nay shocked to learn that something bad has befallen her friend. Who could have predicted this ?
The movie, sadly, is full of WTF moments like that. Still, I've got to say that it ends in style, with a grand old Western-like shoot-out in the animal park of a stately home. Crashing cars ! Blazing guns ! Screeching baboons ! Now that's the stuff !
It is pretty clear that the movie (and, I suppose, the book it was based on) was inspired by the affair of the "Cambridge Five" and, more specifically, by the two-faced career of Kim Philby. It's not a bad movie, although it requires some solid suspension of disbelief : it's not what one could call a business-like and factual take on the world of espionage. At moments it even feels comical, with its over-reliance on accents and disguises.
The movie does not shine by its relentless logic, either. There was at least one plot development which left me speechless. It went like this. A young woman receives a serious, credible warning that she is in great danger from the KGB, which will try to kidnap or interrogate her. She is also advised to leave her little flat immediately. As a result she leaves her flat and checks into another place. However, she also visits a female friend (a kind, decent person) and invites her to go and live in the flat, without giving her any kind of warning or explanation. Twenty minutes later or so into the movie, the young woman is surpised, nay shocked to learn that something bad has befallen her friend. Who could have predicted this ?
The movie, sadly, is full of WTF moments like that. Still, I've got to say that it ends in style, with a grand old Western-like shoot-out in the animal park of a stately home. Crashing cars ! Blazing guns ! Screeching baboons ! Now that's the stuff !