IRONBARK is a Thrilling and Emotional Cold War Espionage Drama with Benedict Cumberbatch - Sundance Review
I love a good spy thriller and that is exactly what the upcoming film Ironbark is. The film tells the intense and exciting true story of how the British and U.S. government agencies, MI6 and CIA, teamed up to spy on the Soviet Union leading up to the Cuban middle crisis.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the film as a businessman named Greville Wynne, who is recruited by the two agencies to do business in the Soviet Union to make contact with an informant named Oleg (Merab Ninidze), who wants to attempt to stop nuclear war from breaking out. If it wasn’t for these two individuals and the work they did together, the Soviet Union and the U.S. would have gone to war.
The two men ended up forming a strong friendship and bond that friendship was eventually put to the ultimate test. The film also stars Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Masel) as CIA agent Emily Donovan.
Ironbark is both a thrilling and emotional story. I wasn’t really familiar with the details of this story before I saw the film and it was really fascinating to see it all play out the way it did. Dominic Cooke did an incredible job telling this story, which is the kind of inspiring film that people need to see. It’s insane how close we actually came to nuclear war, but thanks to the efforts of a small team of people, it was averted.
Cumberbatch, Nindize, and Brosnahan all give stellar performances, and it’s easily some of the best acting that I’ve seen from Cumberbatch yet. There are moments in this film where he takes his talent to the next level.
If you a fan of films involving spies and espionage, and the heavy risks that it involves. This is a movie that you’ve got to watch! It was just an all-round great film that told an intriguing true story. I love the film and I think it’s one that audiences will appreciate as well.
Here’s the synopsis:
Benedict Cumberbatch) and prim but warm housewife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) lead a properly quiet English life. When rumblings of a mole in the Soviet Union government reach British intelligence agent Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and CIA official Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), Greville is called upon by his country precisely for his ordinariness. He is thrown into the political conflict, and as his efforts to end the Cuban Missile Crisis deepen, he forges an unbreakable bond with his informant, Oleg (Merab Ninidze), that will be put to the ultimate test. Pressured by Sheila’s suspicion of his secrecy and as the Soviets close in on the plot, Greville proves himself not to be ordinary at all.
Dominic Cooke directs this unflinchingly suspenseful political drama based on a true story. Cumberbatch and Buckley develop a pure and completely charming connection that adds a rosy hue to this dark portrait of the risks of espionage. Ironbark explores diplomacy, patriotism, virtue, and bravery, but above all else, Greville Wynne reminds us of the simple humanity at the center of every conflict.
