Sean Connery, in a wonderfully nuanced performance, plays "Barley", a tousled book publisher who looks like a retired English professor. He is relaxing in Portugal when British and American intelligence officers invade his quiet life, seeking to recruit him for a dangerous mission. They have chosen him because a manuscript by an unknown author has been intercepted, and it is addressed to him. He is a Russophile who visits Russia, now under glasnost, regularly.The script for "The Russia House" is by Tom Stoppard, adapted from the novel by John le Carre. Shot on location, the film is aided by spectacular scenes of Russia and its beautiful architecture: the Kremlin, Red Square, the subway stations. We come to understand Barley's love of the people, if not the government. Connery--coming from "The Hunt for Red October"--gives us a protagonist easy to relate to.Michelle Pfeiffer plays Katya, an unassuming single mother who becomes the nexus for the drama. Hot on the heels of "Married to the Mob", "Tequila Sunrise", "Dangerous Liaisons", and "The Fabulous Baker Boys", she gives a Golden Globe nominated performance. Katya becomes the embodiment of Russia's soul for Barley, someone he is compelled to love. Besides, she is luminously beautiful.The rest of the cast is solid. Deserving special attention are Roy Scheider and Klaus Maria Brandauer, whose performances are exceptionally strong.Like the cinematography, the music really helps create a mood. This is a story about nations, about peoples, about individuals, and about how conflicting allegiances force us to make choices that define our view of the world and ourselves.

After watching this movie I remember what was so great about it, namely that when it was made it was the first movie to have had a majority of it filmed in communist Russia. The film is interesting as we look at the date, it was made after Glastnost, the time when Soviets were given the freedom of speech, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are a number of things that are said in this movie that is ironic considering that it was true. Another thing is that Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay and that added to my impression of the movie. Tom Stoppard is a very talented playwright and anything written by him I expect to be of a high quality.The Russia House explores the relationship that grows between a Russian publisher and an English publisher, and the world of intrigue that they are dragged into. This is not a typical good guy verses bad guy movie, but rather about people that get caught up in things that are beyond their control.The movie is focused on two people - Barly and Katynia. While Barly was at a Russian poet's camp, he met a strange guy named Dante. They talk about truth and the nature of loving one's country. A few years later, Katynia comes looking for Barly, but as she cannot find him, she hands some manuscripts to somebody else. In this man's search for Barley he decides to pass it to British intelligence, and when they look at the manuscripts they realise that it contains a lot of the Soviet Union's strategic plans, and these plans actually show them how weak the state is.Dante simply wanted these manuscripts published, but the intelligent agencies realised that these manuscripts going public could bring a quick end to the cold war. If the Soviet Union is as bad as it really is then there is no real need for having such a sophisticated intelligent ring. Thus they decide that they want to find out more information and to learn if the source is reliable.It is interesting because when the Soviet Union collapsed, it came out that its military machine was not as threatening as it was. This movie was made before the collapse, so it was either already known or it was something to make the plot more interesting. Still, I find it difficult to believe that the US did not really know how bad the Soviets were because of the extent of their intelligent agencies, but then the CIA may not have been as good as it is made out in the movies.What is good is that this movie is not the typical American anti-communist propaganda, such as Little Nikita was. It does not go on about how great the American way of life is and how bad and evil the Russians are. It does suggest that the system is bad, but it is more the oppression of the government than anything else. Most of this movie pushes the beauty of Russia, and we constantly see some of the ancient buildings that dominate Moscow and St Petersburg. Everything is different now, but we are looking back at a time before the USSR had collapsed.This is a very good movie namely because the characters are so in-depth. The end does not come out like a soppy ending to an American romance, but rather it is one that emphasises that there is not good or bad, just people who are involved in conflicts that they are not interested in.

She not only does the accent, she looks the part. Michelle Pfeiffer as a Russian woman makes this Cold War tale retain its interest, and as for Sean Connery, for once he has an actual rounded character to play, complete with eccentricities, and he does it splendidly. This is a highly successful adaptation of a John le Carre novel. Of course it is all predicated on the menace of the Cold War, even though there is much talk of 'glasnost', photos of Gorbachev are now hanging on the walls, and things are meant to be loosening up in Russia. (In fact this was the first Western film ever made there.) But the Soviet Union still exists, so that this is one of the last big spy movies based upon the Soviet threat. With this film, John le Carre's spy world went out not with a whimper but with a bang. It is a rattling good tale, and well worth the watch today. The supporting actors are very good: Roy Scheider, Klaus Maria Branauer, James Fox, Michael Kitchen, Ken Russell (yes, the director), David Threlfall, and others. Russell gets a bit hysterical in some of his scenes, but one would expect that from him. Brandauer has his usual magnetic intensity. Kitchen is cozy, like the sort of thing you sit in for your cuppa tea. The story itself does have some inert elements, since a group of spy masters sitting around in a control room getting remote signals all the time from Moscow is hard to make dynamic, no matter how many snide remarks they keep making to each other, and how much artificial tension is generated by ambiguous signals which confuse and worry them. One could easily pick no end of holes in the plot. But why should one? The film overcomes all these weaknesses and carries us right along. Somebody somewhere has forgotten how to make good spy stories simply, and the ones being made at the moment are generally too 'busy', leaving little room to breathe between surprises, and characters are too often two-dimensional. Here the two leads are not only written in the round (a clever script by Tom Stoppard helps!), they are played in the round by two real pros. Fred Schepisi does a wonderful job of directing. All good fun, and it really takes you back. It seems only yesterday that Red Square inspired more fear by far than the wastes of Waziristan, or whatever pale substitute for fear we are meant to be quivering about today. This film was shot on location in Lisbon, Moscow, and St. Petersburg (then still Leningrad), and there is a lot of magnificent cinematography, so that the film is partly a travelogue showing us glimpses of wonderful things. It is such a shame that they had to cut away from some of those shots in the interests of the storyline and not linger over them, such as the amazing roof in Lisbon and some glimpses of the Russian countryside, which are so tantalizingly brief.

for me,this adaptation of A John le Carr'e novel is nothing spectacular.in fact,i found it boring and hard to follow.plus,i didn't find any of the character compelling.and there were many predictable moments as well.i will say though that Michele Pfeiffer was convincing as a Russian woman.she had the accent down pat,as far as i could tell.and there were some nice shots of Russian buildings.some of the old buildings are quite magnificent to behold.unfortunately,none of the above is the reason i wanted to watch the movie.i just wanted it end,but i went on and on.and on.anyway,my vote for the Russia House is a 5/10