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Farewell review
:. Director: Christian Carion
:. Starring: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica
:. Running Time: 1:53
:. Year: 2009
:. Country: France
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Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) seems to have become the go-to guy when there is a need for reluctant amateur spies in French cinema. I guess his blond locks and young face must give him a kind of innocence that filmmakers seem to enjoy corrupting. Following the excellent Spy(es), he once again gets caught in an international intrigue, this time as Pierre, an engineer who must pass secret documents to the West. His contact, Sergei, is played by none other than director Emir Kusturica (Life is a Miracle, Arizona Dream), the filmmaker unsurprisingly enjoying his role as a somewhat goofy KGB colonel.
While the two men do not exactly bound at first sight, they slowly develop mutual respect that turns into a friendship, both having to deal with their own conscience and family issues. What brings them closer isn't this espionage game but rather French culture — Sergei is an insatiable Francophile and Pierre seems to be enjoying sharing his culture with him. As you might tell, we are not exactly in James Bond territory here, as rather than giving us gadgetry, guns and babes, director Christian Carion (The Girl from Paris, Merry Christmas) focuses on brushing the psychological of these two characters.
Farewell moves slowly, enveloped in some kind of coldness and inertia that seems to reflect the state of this pre-perestroika Russian society. The film benefits from a great cinematography and, with its old-fashioned facture, is highly reminiscent of these 70's cold war thrillers. Just like these movies and, contrary to current Hollywood trends, Farewell aims at being a realistic depiction of the world of espionage while delivering a political message. Mr. Carion's picture opposes disillusioned idealists to cynical intelligence professionals, showing us the struggle of these two men who know they might lose their family because of their ideals.
If the overall tone of Farewell is cold, meticulous and serious, where the film fails is in its depiction of the men pulling the strings. Because most of its time is spent studying scrupulously Pierre and Serguei, there is not much time left for other characters that are turned into caricatures. This film might be based on a true story, but offers a quite grotesque representation of the French and American presidents, Mr. Miterrand and Mr. Reagan, as well as of the way these countries — and the world — is governed. We get the feeling that the fate of the planet might be played like a game of Risk, which affects the credibility of the picture. As for Willem Dafoe's cameo, as a cynical official, it would have better suited for a Quentin Tarantino movie, mostly as it looks like a wink to some of his previous roles. There is also a scene with Serguei's son singing Queen that seems gratuitous and out of place, contrasting with the tone of the film. Fortunately, because the sequences involving these characters are a minimal part of the story, they do not affect too much the overall experience of this quite absorbing picture.
Fred Thom
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