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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Sometimes one man can change the course of history. This is portrayed with great effect in Farewell (L'affaire Farewell), an espionage thriller about a KGB colonel who in 1981 began giving away secrets so big that they helped bring down the Soviet Union.

“Farewell” is the code name for Sergei Gregoriey (Emir Kusturica, Promise Me This) a KGB officer so disillusioned with Leonid Brezhnev’s communist regime that he seeks to destroy it so his son can have a chance for a better life. A determined Gregoriev, who’s responsible for supervising the evaluation of  intelligence collected by undercover Line X agents around the world, contacts French intelligence and begins passing information on to Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet, The Last Flight), a young French engineer who is above suspicion.

During their operation, lasting between the spring of 1981 and early 1982, the ever-present fear of getting caught strains their marriages and the relationship with each other. In spite of the personal costs, their operation allows Gregoriev to hand over thousands of documents to the West, climaxing with a list of over 200 Line X agents.

I cringe every time I hear a film is “loosely based on” or “inspired” by true life events. Obviously, filmmakers sometimes take dramatic license to make a story more palpable to a wide audience. It’s a business after all.  However, the problem is that they often don’t know when to stop and filmgoers can walk away with a distorted sense of history.

In Farewell, director Christian Carion leaves out, for example,  how Gregoriev, whose real name was Vladimir Vetrov, stabbed his mistress and killed a KGB officer who was trying to intervene. While Gregoriev has unlikable foibles, the unmentioned facts allow Carion the freedom to paint him more as a sympathetic Cold War martyr.

Through it all, Carion maintains an even keel with events and avoids extemporaneous car chases, shoot outs, and James Bond-like gadgets that would have otherwise obliterated historical events. The pacing stumbles occasionally but this can be overlooked because of the fact that this story is too good to have been made up. There is certainly plenty of tension to be had, even though the climax for Canet’s character is a little too fanciful.

Also of note, Fred Ward (Tremors, The Right Stuff) plays a stereotypical, mocking version of President Ronald Reagan as a right wing, gun-toting cowboy who is obsessed with John Ford. Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Platoon) also makes a brief supporting appearance as a CIA chief, but you never forget the fact that it is Willem Dafoe.

On a letter grade scale from “A” being excellent to “F” for failing, Farewell receives a B+.

Farewell is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 118 minutes.

Now showing through September 16 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for more information.

By Michael D. Smith

Indie Film Editor

Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.

In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.

Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.