The Russia House **½ (1990, Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney) – Classic Movie Review 6662

Director Fred Schepisi’s 1990 The Russia House stars Sean Connery, who is back in the USSR as Barley Blair, romancing Russian woman Katya (an unlikely Michelle Pfeiffer), in this intriguing, picturesque and well-acted if clunky and clumsily old-fashioned spy thriller, based on a John Le Carré bestseller.

Connery plays British publisher Barley Blair, who is caught between allied intelligence and the Russians after Pfeiffer’s Katya passes to him a package of three notebooks that supposedly contain Russian military secrets. Tom Stoppard’s uneasy screenplay and Schepisi’s faceless direction are the main minuses, while the sterling performances of Connery and Golden Globe nominated Pfeiffer and the picture-postcard views of Moscow are the main pluses.

Michelle Pfeiffer battles her odd casting as a Muscovite in The Russia House (1990).

Connery is entirely at home with his scruffy, unconventional, anti-authority ex-patriate character. Pfeiffer battles her odd casting as a Muscovite effectively by vocally outshining even Meryl Streep with a precise Russian accent, and still doesn’t let the effort stand in the way of a compelling performance. Film director Ken Russell gives a shamefully way-over-the-top turn as a camp spymaster called Walter, leaving the acting field open to classy turns from Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney, Michael Kitchen, J T Walsh, David Threfall, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Martin Clunes and Ian McNeice, especially Fox as Ned and Brandauer as Dante.

If Schepisi never quite makes The Russia House spark to life as it should, the movie is still entertaining and certainly worth a watch for the mix of Connery, Pfeiffer, John Le Carré, spies and Moscow travelogue.

The Russia House is shot by Ian Baker, produced by Paul Maslansky and Fred Schepisi, scored by Jerry Goldsmith and designed by Richard Macdonald and Roger Cain.

RIP John Mahoney, who plays Brady in The Russia House.

John Mahoney plays Brady.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6662

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