We'll Never Know
Why was this made? Perhaps because director Marek Kanievska had made
'Another Country' (1984) with Rupert Everett twenty years earlier? This film purports to be a film about the stresses faced by Kim Philby's second wife, Eleanor, in the face of her husband's defection to the Soviet Union from Beirut. (Philby's first wife Aileen is not portrayed.) For some bizarre reason, all the names in this film are disguised. Incomprehensible! Sharon Stone plays Eleanor Philby, and the emotional focus of the film is all about her. Rupert Everett plays Philby (having played Burgess before!), and although he was physically all wrong, being too tall, gangly, and haunted, he does very well. There are countless errors in the film, not least the constant reference to 'Russia' before people were using the name like that. There is a great deal of misinformation about Philby flying around, and this film does nothing to dispel any of it. Many people knew he was unstable, a drunk, a bisexual (hence in those days a security risk), and anything else besides. He was unquestionably protected in his job despite all these drawbacks, which should have disqualified him. After his defection to the Soviet Union, he lived comfortably in a four-room flat (five room flats were reserved for the highest officials), and went to work every day as a Colonel in the KGB. The idea that he was sitting around as a lush wishing he could watch some cricket is misinformation spread on purpose. Philby's coded message which he sent back through an unofficial channel when he reached Moscow was: 'When I arrived here the middle toes of both my feet were black.' Work that one out, John le Carre! This film is entertaining viewing, has a good performance also by Julian Wadham, and whiles away the time, as long as you don't take it as gospel. Since we will never known the real truth about any of these things, one fantasy is probably as good as any other. Though why all the sympathy for Eleanor Philby? I can think of worthier objects of pity for what Philby did to them.. 
Don't Believe the Packaging
The DVD packaging describes this movies as a thriller, and as if to
underline that, shows a picture of helicopters circling an exploding van while a guy with a gun runs away. This movie is not a thriller, and there are no explosions or helicopters. (What was that on the packaging? Clip art?) When I'm in the mood for explosions and helicopters, it's a disappointment to bring home a movie that instead has as its big moments someone breaking down a door or fingerprinting someone. This movie is a rambling, disjointed drama. It wasn't completely awful, but was like real life in that the story doesn't completely make sense and doesn't work artistically. (And if they'd shown one more Casablanca-esquire foggy airfield, I'd have screamed.) It's just a bunch of confusing stuff that happens, and then other stuff happens, and who cares about any of those people? And we spent the first 45 minutes trying to tell the various dark-haired women apart. Or maybe they were all the same woman. Still don't know.. |
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