The Wizard of the Kremlin is a film of ideas. There’s little urgency or tension – in a political world crammed with tension, drama and intrigue. It’s a solid start for anyone interested in recent Russian history...

It’s a brilliant cautionary tale, but Assayas fails to catch its essence.

Assayas doesn’t pretend to fully understand his antihero, much less to know better than him, and cultivates just enough bewildered distance in the process to give his film the sort of mystic-slash-metaphysical frisson promised by its title.

Assayas seems trapped between wanting to make a sprawling political chronicle and a character study of a second-tier character. The movie rarely takes off.