by Frank Calvillo
This week, Melissa McCarthy continues her reign as one of Hollywood’s most bankable female stars as she leads the action/comedy Spy. The actress plays a lowly CIA agent confined to desk work until a high-profile assignment comes her way, leading to a requisite number of comedic mishaps.
Boasting an interesting ensemble including Jason Statham, Jude Law, Rose Byrne and Alison Janney, Spy is predicted to be the silent killer to overtake both Entourage and San Andreas at the box-office, while adding more luster to McCarthy’s already shining star.
I’ll admit, I’m game for seeing Spy. McCarthy fatigue hasn’t hit me yet, the supporting cast looks like fun and director Paul Feig does know his way around a comedy. Yet I doubt it will eclipse The Russia House; one of the most compelling and underappreciated spy films of the past century.
Based on the novel by John Le Carre, 1990’s The Russia House stars Sean Connery as Barley Blair, a hard-drinking author whose glory days are behind him. One day Barley is picked up by British intelligence who have intercepted a package addressed to him which contains a manuscript full of some of Russia’s top military secrets. The package in question was sent by a woman named Katya Orlova (Michelle Pfeiffer); a secretary working in one of Moscow’s top publishing houses. In order to prove the secrets’ authenticity and to learn Katya’s true motivations, Barley is reluctantly sent to the Soviet Union to investigate in this tale of intrigue and romance.
There’s not an ounce of The Russia House that isn’t dripping with prestige. The direction by acclaimed filmmaker Fred Schepisi is top notch and its fascinating to see his approach to the structure of the film. Rather than shoot The Russia House in the traditional linear fashion, Schepisi weaves in and out of extended scenes and plays with various timeframes. It may sound rather exhausting, but the fact that the director manages it with a delicate pacing and a lush Jerry Goldsmith score, eliminates any chance of making the technique feel gimmicky.
Adding to the prestige is Tom Stoppard’s thoughtful and intelligent screenplay. The playwright may have been one of the theater’s most renowned voices, yet by the time of The Russia House, he had also gained credibility as a screenwriter too. And while his background inevitably leads to certain scenes feeling stagey at times, the dialogue is smart and quick enough to keep the audience attentive with lines such as “You have to think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being.” Its not the easiest task to find a film with dialogue you can get lost in, fortunately thanks to Stoppard, The Russia House is free of such a problem.
None of the above would work however without two stars and enough wattage between them to make a The Russia House captivating experience.
Connery had for quite some time been called upon to play characters full of suave assuredness and confidence to the point where he could do it without trying. Here, he takes on perhaps the most un-Connery role of his career playing a man who has accepted his place in society as a has been. He is a joke and a wash-up who expects nothing from anybody and gives them the same back in return. Its as different a role as there can be for the legendary actor and he sinks his teeth into it wholeheartedly.
Likewise, Pfeiffer is given one of her most adventurous turns on screen as the quietly fearless Katya. Having come off an Oscar nomination for her show-stopping turn in The Fabulous Baker Boys, the actress made people question her decision to turn down the female leads in two high-profile films (Pretty Woman and The Bonfire of the Vanities) in favor of a decidedly unglamorous role. The move worked as the actress not only nailed the character of the single working Russian mother through a flawless accent, but also by slipping into the sensibilities of another invisible citizen of the Soviet Union.
Thanks to the chemistry between the two stars, the love story elements of The Russia House feel genuine rather than generic. Connery and Pfeiffer make the audience believe in the feelings being developed as the two embark on the most dangerous episodes of their lives. The idea of two people from vastly different backgrounds, who have resigned themselves to lives free of happiness (let alone love) begin to find something is simply a pleasure to watch, especially when Barley romances Katya with lines such as: “All of my past failings were in preparation for meeting you.”
There’s an overall elegance to The Russia House which never ceases, be it romantic scenes of the heart or politically-tinged moments of espionage. Through it all, the audience is treated to a sweeping tale of love and cloak and dagger thrills seeped in a heightened grandiose scope.
Despite the fact that it was one of the few American features to be shot in the Soviet Union, The Russia House remains sternly critical of life in that country (the shoe scene alone is very telling) with Katya being a shining example of the ordinary individual trapped by the regime of the day while desperately longing for a way toward a different life for her and her children.
In a slight case of life imitating art, Pfeiffer more or less inhabited her character’s motivations off the set and caused a bit of a stir in the process. When the actress learned that Russian extras weren’t allowed access to the craft services table that belonged to the American production by decree of the local government, the actress took a stance, claiming the rule totally unfair and refusing to work until it was lifted.
Released at Christmas, 1990, The Russia House got lost in the rush of other notable December releases including Rocky V and The Godfather Part III, all of which flopped in comparison to the box-office juggernaut that was Home Alone. Despite this, critics praised The Russia House as an involving love story, a worthwhile thriller and a stirring piece of political commentary. Pfeiffer herself received her share of acclaim as well as a Golden Globe nomination in the process.
In the canon of John Le Carre film adaptations, The Russia House may rank somewhat lower than more highly-regarded titles such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold or The Looking Glass War, yet there’s no denying the films grace, wit and sheer captivating power.
