The Brink of War Brings Reagan-Gorbachev Summit to Faith-Based Cinema

Angel Studios expands its faith-based cinema portfolio with The Brink of War, a historical drama that chronicles the 1986 Reykjavik Summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Writer-director Michael Russell Gunn makes his feature debut with this PG-rated retelling that paved the way for the following year’s nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. The film opens wide Friday following the distributor’s recent success with Young Washington, which drummed up nearly $47 million at the box office after its Fourth of July release.

The production achieved a notable coup by filming at the actual Icelandic location where world leaders met at a small, rustic and supposedly haunted former French consulate at the edge of the sea. Jeff Daniels portrays Reagan opposite Jared Harris as Gorbachev, with scenes shot in the very room where the historic thirty-hour summit took place. The supporting cast includes J.K. Simmons as Secretary of State George Shultz, Hope Davis as Nancy Reagan, Branka Katic as Raisa Gorbachev, Aya Cash as NPR reporter Cleo, and Guy Burnet as Times journalist Alexander.

A Talky Political Drama With Textbook Patriotism

The film centers on two days of intense negotiations between the aging leaders seated at a table inside a remote Icelandic consulate building, arguing about nuclear disarmament. Gunn, who served as a story editor for Aaron Sorkin’s HBO series The Newsroom, structures the drama around vigorous verbal sparring between the two figures. The narrative stakes establish themselves early and clearly-where Gorbachev merely wants to discuss banning ballistic missiles, Reagan’s equal emphasis on human rights complicates the discussion, particularly the Soviet Union’s restrictions on Western travel for its citizens, while his insistence on pushing the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative further divides them.

The film opens with a biblical quote, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the children of God,” signaling the Angel Studios release’s hagiographic earnestness. Yet the opening scene shows Reagan staring out at a stormy sea at the conclusion of the summit, his first words declaring “I failed.” This disappointment, he tells Shultz, came about because of one word that won’t be heard until the film’s conclusion, after which Shultz beseeches Reagan to salvage the meeting by inviting Gorbachev to Washington because what happened in that room can’t destroy their future.

Christian-Right Rhetoric Meets Gray-Flannel Enterprise

The faith-based film industry’s growing palette expands in terms of subject matter with this production, though not in cinematic style. The feature delivers textbook American patriotism that feels veritably designed, right down to its PG rating, to bore kids in history classrooms for generations to come. The stiff script remains attentive to the political dynamics and rhetorical thrust of the talks, and if its repeated emphasis on American honor, freedom and statesmanship makes for a somewhat pious exercise, the narrative stakes remain undeniably high.

Gunn emphasizes in the film’s press notes 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. 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, though the endless shots of the stunningly beautiful Icelandic landscape provide visual palette cleansers between the claustrophobic sequences.

Speechifying Dialogue and Greatest Hits Rhetoric

The filmmaker, like his mentor Sorkin, appears too concerned with telling audiences exactly how to think. Time and time again throughout The Brink of War, the characters expound on the vital importance of their mission and the world-changing stakes involved. The dialogue feels more like speechifying, with such familiar phrases as “Trust but verify” and “Peace through strength” invoked like a band performing its greatest hits in concert. When a frustrated Reagan finally bellows, “Tear down this wall between us, Mr. Gorbachev!” the urge to shine a cell phone flashlight becomes nearly irresistible.

Meanwhile, the CIA and KGB set up shop in the basement-a piece of floor tape separating their spaces-and Gorbachev’s wife Raisa embarks upon an Icelandic PR tour during which she makes passive-aggressive remarks to reporters about Nancy Reagan’s conspicuous absence from this conference. These details are included simply for color; when it comes to thematic depth, the proceedings remain rather shallow, with everything presented on the surface.

Understated Performances Offset Earnest Hagiography

The drama qualifies as a serviceable history lesson whose hagiographic earnestness finds itself offset by understated turns from its leads and a persuasive pro-democracy, anti-communism attitude. Like May’s Pressure, this tale represents merely a minor piece of a major whole-told well if, unavoidably, with a somewhat inflated sense of its own importance. Obvious liberties are taken for the sake of cinematic convenience throughout the 1 hour 57 minutes runtime.

“Being underestimated is a tactical advantage,” Secretary of State George Shultz remarks early in the film, explicitly speaking about his boss President Reagan, though his comment applies, to some degree, to the film in which he co-stars.

Adult audiences may prove more willing than students when the wide release arrives Friday, but they’re doubtful to be much more entertained. The drama remains a far dustier, more static affair than Young Washington, which was stolidly old-fashioned but still rousing in its gung-ho way. If viewers squint a little at the screen, they can just about see the first-rate Broadway play that could emerge from this material-with no casting changes required-if the telling were just a little more tense, and the writing just a little more witty.