Drama

Thriller

Romance

The Russia House

Star Partners III

Studio Trite

MGM-Pathé Communications

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

Soviet Union

English

Pусский

Sean Connery

Michelle Pfeiffer

Roy Scheider

James Fox

John Mahoney

Michael Kitchen

J. T. Walsh

Ken Russell

David Threlfall

Klaus Maria Brandauer

Mac McDonald

Nicholas Woodeson

Martin Clunes

Ian McNeice

Colin Stinton

Denys Hawthorne

George Roth

Peter Marinker

Ellen Hurst

Peter Knupffer

Nikolai Pastukhov

Jason Salkey

Eric Anzumonyln

Daniel Woźniak

Giorgi Anjaparidze

Vladek Nikiforov

Christopher Lawford

Mark LaMura

Blu Mankuma

Tuck Milligan

Jay Benedict

David Timson

Yelena Stroyeva

Fyodor Smirnov

Pavel Sirotin

Paul Jutkevitch

David Henry

Martin Wenner

Paul Rattee

Simon Templeman

Gina Nikiforov

Raisa Ryazanova

Kate Lock

Charlotte Cornwell

Craig Crosbie

Keith Edwards

Michael Fitzpatrick

Rob Freeman

Gennady Venov

Aleksandr Yatsko

Vladimir Zunetov

Jack Raymond

David Ryall

Nikolay Dik

Alexei Jawdokimov

Constantine Gregory

Sergey Reusenko

Yegueshe Tsturvan

Jonty Reason

Vladimir Kuznetsov

Vladimir Sidorov

John le Carré

Tom Stoppard

Paul Maslansky

Jerry Goldsmith

Fred Schepisi

Ian Baker

Peter Honess

Beth Jochem Besterveld

Jim Morahan

Nikita Mikhalkov

Leonid Vereshchagin

Michael Stevenson

Romo Gorrara

Simon Finney

Mark Ellis

Adam Somner

Perry Evans

_**Artistic production with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, but uninteresting spy story**_

A few years before the fall of the Soviet Union, a boozy English publisher named Barley (Sean Connery) is sent a mysterious manuscript via a beautiful Russian editor named Katya (Michelle Pfeiffer), but it’s intercepted by British intelligence and Barley is coerced into going to Moscow & Leningrad to meet with Katya and the writer of the documents (Klaus Maria Brandauer), which contain technical data that calls into question the quality of the Soviet defense weaponry. Meanwhile both British and American agents (Roy Scheider, James Fox, et al.) surveil Barley’s activities.   

Based on John le Carre's novel, "The Russia House" (1990) is a spy drama/romance and NOT an action thriller in the mold of James Bond. Its considerable attributes include spectacular (and rare) on-location work in Russia (shot just a couple years before the fall of the USSR), Jerry Goldsmith's sumptuous jazzy score with Branford Marsalis playing soprano sax and, of course, the notable cast. 

The film is aesthetically pleasing and the love story is effective, especially its culmination, but the spy yarn didn’t interest me. This may because I didn’t utilize the subtitles and therefore missed a lot of the highly accented verbiage, which is a mistake when a movie is dialogue-driven, like this one. The depiction of intelligence work is presumably realistic (as opposed to 007), but static, boring, cynical and with little human decency.

Next time I watch it I’ll be sure to use the subtitles.

The film runs 2 hour, 3 minutes, and was shot in Moscow & Leningrad and points nearby; as well as Lisbon, Portugal (Barley’s flat); Bowen Island, British Columbia (American Intelligence 'safe house'); and London (book fair & jazz concert), as well as nearby Pinewood Studios.

GRADE: C+/B-

CinemaSerf

Sean Connery at least looks like he's having some fun in this otherwise rather dry adaptation of the John Le Carré tale of Cold War espionage. He's "Barley", a publisher who is recruited by MI5 to investigate a secret document sent from the USSR purporting to itemise their nuclear arsenal. Needless to say both the British and their CIA counterparts are wetting themselves at the very thought of this being real, but that needs to be verified - and that's where they recruit "Barley". He travels to Moscow to meet the author, codenamed "Dante" (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and it's whilst there he becomes increasingly distracted by his "editor" (Michelle Pfeiffer) - a woman whom his source claims never to have met! As the plot develops, it becomes clear that strings are being pulled but also that "Barley" is beginning to think on his own, and not necessarily with his brain either. Will he stick to the plan or will he throw a spanner in the works of his Western handlers? It's a solid enough story but it's padded out far too thinly. There's no chemistry between the characters from Connery and Pfeiffer (and her ropey accent) and though there are plenty of red herrings to fuel the intrigue, that's all delivered in a remarkably sterile and disjointed fashion. Le Carré's stories always focussed on detail and this film rather skirts over that in favour of developing the burgeoning romance, and that rather neuters the sense of suspense that's also not really helped by the blandness of James Fox and Roy Scheider. It's watchable, but nobody's finest two hours.

The Russia House 1990 TV trailer

Sean Connery & Michelle Pfeiffer, The Russia House (Movie Trailer).

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The Russia House

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Cast

Sean Connery

Michelle Pfeiffer

Roy Scheider

James Fox

John Mahoney

Michael Kitchen

J. T. Walsh

Ken Russell

David Threlfall

Klaus Maria Brandauer

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