This cold war character study is dependent on the two lead performances and both are up to the task. The middle-class buddies go from suburbia to spying in a heartbeat and neither have the intellect to see their consequences or for that matter care too much about such things.
Even when events go terribly wrong the web is too strong and resistance is futile. They are caught up in an espionage game that is over their heads and they are drowning in denial, ignorance, and the inevitable.
It is a movie that has one character (Sean Penn) who is completely delusional and drug dependent and the other (Timothy Hutton) who is noble, and is naive and frustrated at abuse of power and tries, though unadvisedly, to use his low level CIA access to get back at the patriotic fascists who, among other non-National Security issue dealings, use the Government to topple left-wing elected officials in third world countries.
This is all done in a matter of fact Directorial style that relies on behavior more than motivation. Both are not loyal, even to their families who seem to care about them. The film comes off a bit vague, on the surface, and very shallow, but the best part is the volatile interaction between the professional Soviet Spies and the buffoonish drug addled courier.
Even when events go terribly wrong the web is too strong and resistance is futile. They are caught up in an espionage game that is over their heads and they are drowning in denial, ignorance, and the inevitable.
It is a movie that has one character (Sean Penn) who is completely delusional and drug dependent and the other (Timothy Hutton) who is noble, and is naive and frustrated at abuse of power and tries, though unadvisedly, to use his low level CIA access to get back at the patriotic fascists who, among other non-National Security issue dealings, use the Government to topple left-wing elected officials in third world countries.
This is all done in a matter of fact Directorial style that relies on behavior more than motivation. Both are not loyal, even to their families who seem to care about them. The film comes off a bit vague, on the surface, and very shallow, but the best part is the volatile interaction between the professional Soviet Spies and the buffoonish drug addled courier.