Farewell

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Starring: Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Fred Ward, Willem Dafoe.

Details: France / 113mins (12A).

Based on true events, Farewell tells the story of a Russian spy who is credited with a large role in the fall of Soviet Russia. Director Christian Carion steeps his story in realism, which unfortunately renders his movie rather flat at times.

Moscow, 1981, and Colonel Grigoriev (Kusturica) is a middleman in the KGB. Seduced by the Western way of life, and in particular French culture, Grigoriev singles out Pierre Froment (Canet, The Beach), a French engineer working in Moscow, and passes along highly sensitive documents to him. The French Secret Service encourages Pierre to be a liaison even though he protests he's not a spy. Meanwhile, with the newly elected Mitterrand promises to employ Communist officials in his cabinet and French-American relations are tense; to placate President Reagan (Ward), Mitterrand passes along Grigoriev's, now codenamed Farewell, top-secret leaks...

A thriller in the vein of The Secret Lives Of Others (slow, detailed, character-driven), Carion isn't interested in shoot-outs, car chases and high-tech shenanigans synonymous with spy thrillers – "this isn't James Bond", Pierre's wife Jessica (Alexandra Maria Lara), reminds him. She's right: Farewell's scenes take place on park benches and bus stops in broad daylight while Grigoriev, a hulk of a man, stomps about the city with these potentially world-changing documents in a brown folder tucked under his arm. The director too deadens the 'they're coming down the hall so you better finish up snapping those photos' scenes, which are devoid of the expected tense soundtrack. It's a welcome stylistic choice.

In exploring the domestic lives of the protagonists, Carion strips away the hero status of Farewell - he's got his own problems: he can't relate to his son (he listens to Queen) and cheats on his wife with a co-worker (the real Farewell was up to more). It's an attempt to humanise the spy, to show that he's not just a political puppet, but in doing so Carion takes his eye off the ball. Realism might be the order of the day but what's left can be rather dull. Carion, however, can't resist reverting to type with the usual 'you're putting your family life at risk' argument with respective wives and the age-long wait at a border crossing while sentries check passports and such.

Farewell might be always interesting but it's never exciting.