Farewell

A fairly solid espionage drama from the point of view of a French worker in Moscow. The film's strength is its portrayal of the interesting relationships between the two men, their wives, families and colleagues. Then the spy stuff comes along, and it's all a bit too easy and lacking in tension. There are a few decent suspenseful sequences but overall the film falls into the no man's land between two genres. I cared more about the famillies than the spies, so on some level it missed its mark.

"Carion's film admirably resists overselling the material: it's an espionage film, with no comic-book theatrics"

It's pretty damn tight. Less about espianoge and more about the men caught up in a movement bigger than both of them, and involving all the super powers in the world.

Contrary to what the summary contends, all L'Affaire Farewell has in common with the inferior Lives of Others is the same decade and side of the iron curtain. It is in fact derivative of Martin Ritt's superior, much harder-hitting The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, which also deals with how individuals become expendable to western nations in the grand game of cold war espionage. It's nice to see Kusturica acting, but his time is still better spent directing.

Great cold war thriller. Kusturica and Canet are just superb.

A solid thriller, even if the thrills are subtle. Kusturica and Canet keep you thoroughly invested. However, the goofy scenes with the American characters distract from the otherwise effective drama.