This film’s lighthearted, mismatched-buddies-in-peril tone notwithstanding, co-directors and writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein deserve credit for inserting a strong message relevant to our times:
Don’t let government propaganda and assumptions about “the other” interfere with our individual ability to judge people based on their character and behavior.
 |
| Evading KGB pursuers was hard enough when Nikolai (Kenneth Branagh, center) had only his new friend Troy (Ryan Reynolds) to worry about .... but matters get even more intense when Nikolai's daughter (Maria Bakalova) enters the picture. |
Following a training drill during which U.S. Navy fighter pilot Lt. Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) demonstrates “the right stuff” during the unconventional rescue of a wingman, he’s selected for a special reconnaissance op. The CIA-sponsored mission: to surveille suspected missile silos 1,200 miles inside the Soviet border.
To Kelly’s unhappy surprise, he’s relegated to co-pilot status, responsible solely for running the camera. Their long-range, high-altitude SR-71 Blackbird instead will be flown by Air Force pilot Maj. Pete Sanders (Louis Cancelmi, appropriately condescending), an insufferable jerk with the typical Air Force bias against Navy pilots.
Sanders pays for that hubris in the worst possible way, when they’re intercepted by a Soviet MiG. The quick-thinking Kelly manages to destroy the MiG — quite improbably, which signals the tone this film will take — and eject. But debris destroys his parachute as snow-covered terra firma appears below, and his final fall results in a bad leg injury. His last conscious image is of an approaching cloaked figure, carrying a nasty-looking rifle...
...who, when Kelly regains consciousness, turns out to be benevolent Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh), a former KGB officer turned passionate admirer of American culture in general, and his bootlegged VHS copy of the movie “Top Gun” in particular.
“I’m your biggest fan,” Ustinov eagerly insists, to an understandably dubious Kelly. Although the Russian is delighted by his unlikely American guest, Kelly’s distrust becomes even greater, upon learning more about his grizzled host’s background, despite the man’s insistence that he now regrets his previous actions.
No surprise, then, that Kelly takes the first opportunity to flee: the height of foolishness, since he doesn’t speak Russian, and is in the middle of forested, snow-covered God Knows Whereness. (Filming actually took place in Canada and Hungary.) A brief encounter with some locals quickly turns dangerous, at which point the resourceful Ustinov rescues Kelly a second time, thanks to solid hand-to-hand fighting skills.
Branagh, despite his 65 years of age, persuasively sells Ustinov’s moves during this fracas.
Kelly’s only hope for rescue involves communicating with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, via an untraceable Altai mobile radiotelephone .... possessed solely by high-placed government officials.
Meanwhile, top-level KGB pursuer Alexander Volkov (Marcin Dorocinski), a hard-liner with no love for Gorbachev, is well aware of the plane crash; he also quickly deduces that the pilot (Kelly) is alive.
Thus, the stakes are set. Can Kelly and Ustinov evade Volkov and his men long enough to reach safety? Even more crucial, can Kelly persuade his American handlers to grant Ustinov the asylum he so strongly desires?
The subsequent plot beats vary from genuinely dangerous — as when Kelly and Ustinov board a train soon filled with Soviet soldiers and Volkov’s men — to unexpectedly hilarious. The funniest of the latter occurs during the attempt to snatch the Altai, interrupted when a high-ranking Soviet official’s extra-marital tryst goes awry with the unexpected early return of his wife and children.
Daley, Goldstein, Reynolds and Branagh play this with deadpan solemnity, which makes the sequence even funnier.
A secondary running gag involves Kelly’s fighter-pilot nickname — “Assassin” — which he repeatedly refuses to explain to his curious companion (and which ultimately has an amusing payoff).
The banter is well played; Kelly is an understandable bundle of anxiety, while Ustinov remains calm and practical ... most of the time.
The ongoing problem of mutual trust remains an issue, which finally prompts Ustinov to vent his frustration: “You know so many ways to fight us, but you don’t know the first thing about us.”
Such serious moments aside, the primary boys-own-adventure tone clearly fits Reynolds’ wheelhouse; no surprise, since he’s one of the film’s executive producers. Branagh was a smart co-starring choice, for his contrasting acting gravitas.
Maria Bakalova is a welcome presence in the third act, as Ustinov’s estranged daughter, Anna: a woman with a secret of her own, which makes her equally fearful of the KGB. David Morse has a telling role as Kelly’s ailing father; Daley and Goldstein’s script includes a very satisfying little detail about the reason for this older man’s condition.
Production designer Nora Takacs Ekberg and cinematographer Barry Peterson establish a solid sense of place and time, with venerable Hungarian locations — notably the city of Dunaujvaros — standing in for period Soviet authenticity.
In sum, this is an engaging popcorn flick with a welcome dollop of sober messaging.
No comments:
Post a Comment