“An ordinary spy” takes a naive look at the secret services

THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT

Inspired, it seems, by a true story, signed by a renowned theater director, Dominic Cooke, An ordinary spy works on the reconstruction, a bit nostalgic and applied, of an old-fashioned spy cinema, which would not miss a gaiter button, like the adaptation, in 2012, of The mole, by John le Carré, by Tomas Alfredson.

Actor number

A sales representative (Benedict Cumberbatch) is commissioned by the British spy services and the CIA to mediate with a senior Soviet official who transmits information to the West on the development of the Kremlin’s nuclear force. The film quickly abandons the theme of the ordinary individual plunged into an extraordinary situation to describe the birth of a friendship between the two men and to pin (not too much anyway) the cynicism of the Western secret services.

After the first half of the film where one can let oneself, for a while, be carried away by the suspense, the story deviates towards an emphasis doped with the actor’s number, where disenchantment is replaced by a tenacious naivety.