Metacritic-Rezensionen

It's juicy, fascinating stuff, well orchestrated by Carion and finely thesped -- especially by Kusturica.

Director Christian Carion (Merry Christmas) establishes a low-key yet threatening atmosphere right from the start, and gets terrific performances from Kusturica and Canet.

Farewell, a cold war drama by the French director Christian Carion, isn't just a movie set in 1981; in many ways it feels like a movie made in 1981.

The source of all this information was a real-life KGB agent, Vladimir Vetrov, code named Farewell, and with the usual adjustments for drama his story gets a respectable retelling in this nervy French production.

While the film is too convoluted to stir boxoffice excitement, it offers some rewards for sophisticated moviegoers

When it comes to actual historical details, Farewell crams too many notions into expositional blips of dialogue. And the scenes of conferences in the corridors of power, whether in Moscow, Paris or Washington, are strained and abrupt.

Farewell offers intrigue, simmering tension.

As a political thriller, Christian Carion's Farewell is fairly feeble, rendering some of the oldest clichés of Cold War potboilers without much urgency or stylistic flair.

A homely bit of international Cold War cloak-and-dagger, starring badly dressed bureaucrats instead of chic spies, Farewell is based on a vital early-'80s espionage break involving the KGB, DST French intelligence, and the CIA.

It's hard to watch Farewell without thinking of such '70s classics as "All the Presidents Men" and "Network," mature dramas that Hollywood has since all but abandoned (with intermittent exceptions like The Insider).