Farewell (R) 7.5

Farewell (2009) L'affaire Farewell (original title): The French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events. (6.9)

Director: Christian Carion
Writers: Christian Carion, Eric Raynaud, and Serguei Kostine (book)
Stars: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica and Dina Korzun
Languages: French, English, Russian

Based on the real life KGP operative turned double-agent Vladimir Vetrov, this movie tells a wonderful (true) story. From the beginning you realize that the spy-work is pretty sloppy, for instance exchanging documents in pretty open places, but apparently that was how the actual guy worked too. If it wasn't real, I would not have believed that a high level KGB agent was willing to give away the store for his ideology alone. The side-story of the US and French Presidents' lack of trust for each other was interesting to watch. (Wonder if the conversations went that way in reality.) I was kind of surprised to see Reagan, Mitterrand and Gorbachev being played by actors rather than showing TV footage. Then again, that would have been difficult to pull off for inside conversations. The acting was spot-on by the entire cast (maybe Fred Ward was a bit off as Reagan). I liked how the whole story unfolded and also learned a bit of history, too. My Rating: 7.5