Farewell
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward, David Soul
Director: Christian Carion
It's back to the 1980s for this espionage thriller set in events which led to the fall of the Soviet Bloc.
As it opens on a white landscape filled with snow, a lone wolf watches troops head off into a truck - and from there, the action flicks from the cold wastelands to the decadent west of the 1980s France.
Guillaume Canet is Pierre Froment, an engineer who's caught up in the world of espionage and trading secrets to the Soviets. But soon, this relatively naïve spy is making big waves in the world and powers higher up are wondering where the leaks are coming from.
And as the web is more deeply woven, both Reagan (Fred Ward) and
Gorbachev, as well as President Mitterand find themselves in the
line of suspicion as a cat and mouse game develops between
intelligence agencies.
Farewell is a globe trotting complex and deeply rich film - it
starts off slowly and builds towards the end. There's an
authenticity to the film which is there from the beginning - and
Fred Ward impresses as Reagan.
While it's intelligent and engrossing film making, it does at times teeter on the slightly slow side as it follows its story from beginning to end. That's not to say it's not captivating - more the case
That said though, if you fancy spending some time reliving the 80s spy paranoia, then this could be the film for you.
