The Russia House (1990)

Pretty Good

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Sean Connery, in a wonderfully nuanced performance, plays "Barley", a tousled book publisher who looks like a retired English professor. He is relaxing in Portugal when British and American intelligence officers invade his quiet life, seeking to recruit him for a dangerous mission. They have chosen him because a manuscript by an unknown author has been intercepted, and it is addressed to him. He is a Russophile who visits Russia, now under glasnost, regularly.The script for "The Russia House" is by Tom Stoppard, adapted from the novel by John le Carre. Shot on location, the film is aided by spectacular scenes of Russia and its beautiful architecture: the Kremlin, Red Square, the subway stations. We come to understand Barley's love of the people, if not the government. Connery--coming from "The Hunt for Red October"--gives us a protagonist easy to relate to.Michelle Pfeiffer plays Katya, an unassuming single mother who becomes the nexus for the drama. Hot on the heels of "Married to the Mob", "Tequila Sunrise", "Dangerous Liaisons", and "The Fabulous Baker Boys", she gives a Golden Globe nominated performance. Katya becomes the embodiment of Russia's soul for Barley, someone he is compelled to love. Besides, she is luminously beautiful.The rest of the cast is solid. Deserving special attention are Roy Scheider and Klaus Maria Brandauer, whose performances are exceptionally strong.Like the cinematography, the music really helps create a mood. This is a story about nations, about peoples, about individuals, and about how conflicting allegiances force us to make choices that define our view of the world and ourselves.

Sean Connery is a publisher and saxophone player swept up in Cold War antics as an agent trying to smuggle scientific secrets of some sort out of Russia and into the West.I never liked the soprano saxophone. I don't know why it exists. It's usually too shrill and is associated with supermarkets, cheap commercials, and Kenny G. Why isn't the clarinet good enough, hey? This is one sluggish movie and a bit complicated, as the author's plots tend to be. It's redeemed by the shenanigans of the CIA/MI5 or MI6, a group of puppeteers behind Connery and his contact, Michelle Pfeiffer, led by a hot-headed Roy Scheider and a dry, ironic James Fox. J. T. Walsh -- my co-star in the superlative "Windmills of the Gods", or what it "Rage of Angels?", I forget -- is the ironbound US Army officer who suspects everyone of being a ComSymp and wants to bomb them all -- "a hard-head from the ***hole up," as someone describes him.They put Connery through a lie detector test to make sure he's not a commie, and the scene puts on display the movie's most charming feature -- its witty screenplay.The wily interrogators ask Connery about his politics, his motives, his past. "Have you ever associated with any musicians with known anarchist tendencies?" Connery frowns thoughtfully. "Well, there was one trombone player. Willie Brown was his name. He was the only musician I've ever known who was completely devoid of any anarchist tendencies." The performances are uniformly good, even Roy Scheider who seems about to stroke out at any moment and who shouts scatological imprecations. I think the role calls for it. I can't understand why all the men are so awfully sun tanned though. The weather in Moscow and St. Petersberg are about what we can expect -- more clouds of gray than any Russian play could guarantee.The photography of Russian cities and their monuments is memorable.

Films that require you to pay close attention to every little detail and have a complex plot from the outset can generally be thrust into one of two categories: Stimulating and intellectual, or potential insomnia cures. The Russia House is the former... so keep taking the Nytol. There's much languid talk about politics, international trade, the Cold War, espionage... and for those expecting Sean Connery to slap on a tux and start blowing people away, and going to be sorely disappointed. If on the other hand, you LISTEN to what is being said and are open to the idea of getting small rewards along the way rather than shallow exhibitionism, than this may be right up your street.Make sure all the windows are closed, the children are in bed, your bladder is empty... because you don't want any meaningless distractions while the story is being told. Not that it moves at a fast pace, but inconsequential moments have repercussions for later on, and simple snatches of dialogue could hold invaluable clues. Russia's never looked better, and the chief photographer captures Moscow in all it's architectural splendour. The much missed Connery (He's retired from acting now, believe it or not) does a sterling job as the amateur spy who doesn't know what side he's on, and sex-on-legs Pfeiffer has a dead-on Russian accent. At least to this untrained ear.Maybe not for action junkies, but anyone else who appreciates much subtler qualities in film... Please step this way. 7/10

Without any hesitation, I admit: this is one of my favorite movies! To be more precise, it's one of the top 5 movies I have ever seen, and a rare one I watched several times in the course of the two decades (in cinema, on video or TV). I noticed an interesting development of my attitude towards this movie: my first watching hasn't resulted in a special satisfaction (as far as I remember), but every subsequent time the movie engaged me more and more. Obviously, this masterpiece of non-standard political thriller should be seen more then once! What is so good about it? I would say – everything! First, the theme: a subtle story of personal relationship (ending with love affair) between two people from different political worlds placed in the atmosphere of the last faze of the cold war era and the beginning of the USSR collapse. Second: the brilliant main roles performed by Sean Connery (charming as always) and Michelle Pfeiffer (probably her best appearance ever; she was so persuasive in the role of a 'typical' Slavic character and mentality). Third: some amazing scenes of dilapidated Moscow environment, conveying the atmosphere of a derelict regime which is about to be changed. Fourth: excellent, unobtrusive and well attuned music. Fifth: a contrived direction and film editing ('fusion' of two different scenes), etc.All in all, The Russia House is a masterpiece of its kind and I wander about the pretty low rating it got at IMDb.com. It's not fair in this case. It's not fair, indeed!