You have to acknowledge the good intentions behind Michael Russell Gunn’s feature directorial debut depicting the 1986 meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik that helped advance the cause of a nuclear reduction treaty. In the film’s press notes, the writer-director emphasizes that his intention was not to make his movie overly political, but rather to illustrate the vital importance of people with different ideologies simply talking with each other in order to bridge divides. To that end, The Brink of War features lots and lots of…talk.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, even though the nearly one-location setting, with lengthy scenes in which the two figures engage in vigorous debate, indicates that the material might have been better served as a play. But then you wouldn’t have had the endless shots of the stunningly beautiful Icelandic landscape that provide visual palette cleansers between the claustrophobic sequences.
The Brink of War
The Bottom Line
History come to only intermittent life.
