In the end, the film lacks an imagination, and that unfortunately winds up dragging it through the mud.

Hardy is very odd, as usual.

The story is a confusing bore that leads achingly slowly to a solution as perfunctory as it is implausible.

Demidov knows better. His transformation from committed Communist to compassionate citizen is Hardy’s gift to a film that rambles on but works well as a thriller while conveying the bleakness of life behind the Iron Curtain.