Review – The Brink of War

I must admit that I continue to feel confused about Angel Studios. I’ve been overly harsh towards them, but their voice as a studio has been inconsistent. They take huge swings, by the standards of a faith-based studio, and draw huge talent, but do so strangely. They’ll make a controversial film against human trafficking one moment (drawing criticism for allegedly pandering to Qanon) and then make a pro-feminist/pro-immigrant biopic about a Catholic saint. They’ll collaborate with The Daily Wire (while their producers speak out against the decision) and then produce an adaptation of Animal Farm that gets lambasted as anti-capitalist propaganda. It’s with this lens that I’m viewing Brink of War.

Content Guide

Violence/Scary Images: Limited to none.
Language/Crude Humor: Some heavy language including b***s***.
Drug/Alcohol References: Limited to none.
Sexual Content: Limited to none.
Spiritual Content: Christianity and atheism are discussed as part of the story, with President Reagan professing his Christian faith and Gorbachev claiming Jesus was actually a socialist.
Other Negative Content: Limited to none.
Positive Content: Themes of compromise, dialogue, trust, and liberty.

Review

I’ve quite enjoyed a number of recent Angel Studios films, like Young Washington and Brave the Dark, but The Brink of War seems like another weird choice. A Cold War drama makes as much sense for their audience as anything else, and the talent on hand even punches well above their usual weight. As far as mainstream filmmaking goes, Brink of War represents some of their biggest swings. It’s drawing huge talent like Jeff Daniels, Jared Harris, and J.K. Simmons. Collectively, this group represents amongst the best character actors of our generation. It reminds me of HBO’s Chernobyl by way of the made-for-TV George Washington biopic The Crossing.

Set against the 1986 Reykjavik Summit, the film explores one of the tensest moments of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev have chosen to meet at a tiny isolated house in Iceland after the latter threatened to escalate nuclear conflict amid Reagan’s rollout of the “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative. Behind closed doors in this tiny house, two of the most bullheaded politicians in the world attempt to negotiate an arms rollback that could protect the future of the world without undermining the safety of either nation.

While the film does suffer some maladies, it does prove to be an effectively tense little drama when it is at its best. History Buffs points out in his review that the film suffers some heavy-handed exposition and some unnecessary melodrama, particularly with scenes featuring subordinate characters where they have tense exchanges that feel a bit excessive. The dialogue is particularly overt any time the Soviet characters lecture the Americans. They’ll speak bluntly about Jesus being a socialist or George Washington being a slaveholder as evidence that the Soviet Union is no less corrupt than America, mostly to deflect from Reagan’s attempts to free political prisoners or defend his allies.

At its worst, the film’s limited budget is felt by its small size and limited scope. It feels more like a cramped stage play than a movie at times, even if the film is doing the best with its cinematography and performances to elevate its made-for-tv level production design.

Thankfully, the film is at its best in its chamber-drama moments. Harris and Daniels offer the best performances in the film. Harris’ Gorbachev captures the stoic Machiavellian tendencies of a Soviet politician who has navigated his entire life with careful words and reserved intentions. Similarly, Daniels captures the anti-communist swagger and light-hearted humor of the famous Republican President while still channelling the underlying emotional core and seriousness of a man who recognizes the weight of history around him.

Daniels doesn’t necessarily blend seamlessly into the role in the manner that Dennis Quaid did in his Reagan biopic a few years ago, but he carries the performance with the same grandeur he brought to other biopic performances: George Washington, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Atticus Finch, etc. As anyone who has seen The Newsroom can attest, he is the best actor in the business at playing dignified, principled, and upstanding figures who carry the fate of the world on their shoulders. President Reagan feels like a natural fit for his repertoire.

Flawed as it may be, it is a film that accomplishes its best moments when it absolutely needs. I’m tempted to compare it to the 2021 indie flick Mass as a similar comparison for how such a film like this can be filmed in a more comprehensive and cinematic way, but I think it holds its own for the ambitions it is aiming for. This is a solid Cold War historical drama and its performances elevate it more than I expected!