Director: Christian Carion
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica, Alexandra Maria Lara, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward, Philippe Magnan, Niels Arestrup, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Dina Korzun.
Rating: (M)
Scripted according to actual Cold War espionage events, Farewell is a ripping tale of what happened when a disenfranchised Russian intelligence officer revealed KGB operations to the West.
With unfettered access to Soviet spy documentation, Sergei Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica) believes his actions will facilitate an end to East-West posturing.
The trouble is, smuggling documents out of the USSR in the early 1980s is not all that easy.
Grigoriev needs a mule, so chooses the reluctant Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet), an engineer working in the Moscow branch of a French electronics conglomerate.
While every Russian citizen is looking out for the secret police, Froment is quickly seduced by the thrill of deception, until he realises the depth of the hole he digs for his family.
Skulking about in the meticulously prepared sets, the duo develop a personal connection that ratchets up the tension as their quest gets increasingly audacious.
Both Canet, as Froment, and Kusturica, as Grigoriev, are phenomenal in their roles.
Every bit the alpha-male womaniser, Grigoriev shows cavalier disregard for his own safety, while Froment is a paranoid everyman.
It's easy in the first 10-15 minutes to get disoriented in the hazy mishmash of random acts, but stick with it.
Director Christian Carion cleverly weaves together the minutiae of detail with a super-tight script to set up a breathtaking finale.
Best thing: One wonderfully choreographed scene where Grigoriev's son Igor impersonates Freddie Mercury.
Worst thing: Not getting to spend more time with Fred Ward's brilliant impersonation of Ronald Reagan. His use of John Wayne to explain US foreign policy is inspired.
See it with: Anyone with a decent attention span and love of a gripping espionage thriller.
- By Mark Orton
