Spy, get out! In 1886, London, Anton Werlock is a modest shopkeeper in the dubious Soho district, who trades in intimate goods, so to speak, and leads a double life. He is a member of the anarchist circle, whose activities he regularly reports to the Russian Embassy. One day, the embassy official who oversees him, whom everyone calls simply Mr. Vladimir (David Dawson), decides that it is time to start acting more actively and provoke the anarchists into violent action. Unlike tsarist Russia, various clandestine cells are treated more loyally in England, at least as long as they do not take up arms and pose a threat to public safety. The first secretary of the embassy believes that if the revolutionaries are pushed to violence, the British government will stop looking the other way and provide shelter to fugitive Russian anarchists. So Verlock is instructed to organize the bombing of the Greenwich Observatory.
The mini-series The Secret Agent, judging by the synopsis, may well seem almost a product of anti-Russian propaganda, but in fact has a strong literary basis for more than a century of exposure. The original source for the script was the work of Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907 and has survived a total of six adaptations. Four of them, including this last one, were produced by the BBC (1967, 1975, 1992 and 2016), and twice more the story was transferred to wide screens. In 1936, the pioneer was Alfred Hitchcock himself, who filmed Conrad’s story under the sign “Sabotage”. Interestingly, in the original, the main character was called Adolf Werlock, but Hitchcock, working on the film already in the pre-war years, decided to change his unsound name to Anton, in order to avoid clear associations with one famous Austrian artist. The scriptwriters of the project with Toby Jones went the same way and for the same reason. Well, the most famous film adaptation is still the film of 1996 with Bob Hoskins in the title role and a whole scatter of stars in the background - from Patricia Arquette to Gerard Depardieu and from Christian Bale to Robin Williams.
The ability of the BBC to transfer to the screen literary works of classics of British (and not only) prose has long been a sign of quality, but the next adaptation of “The Secret Agent” is unlikely to be among the best. First of all, doubts are caused by the figure of the main character and the choice of the actor for this role. With all due respect to Toby Jones, it's hard to believe that the main character, in his interpretation, is capable of years of undercover activity and never arouse suspicion. Verlock is so insecure, suspicious, nervous character that, looking at him, you inevitably wonder how he ever managed to deceive someone for so many years. After all, the ability to weave intrigue and lead a double (or rather even triple, as it turns out in the course) game requires a lot of endurance, composure and prudence. Verlock, however, hardly deceives even his own wife Winnie (Vicky McClure), who married him not out of love, but out of calculation. By the way, the secondary characters here are generally embodied more successfully: in addition to Mrs. Werlock, this is Inspector Heath (Stephen Graham), and the bomb maker nicknamed Professor (Ian Hart) - bright, interesting characters. Unfortunately, they have to work with rather mediocre material: the plot is loose, slow, it desperately lacks dynamics. The chosen format - a mini-series of three hour episodes - is also not successful. Even for such a small timekeeping, the action looks too slow, protracted. Two hours for such a story would be enough for the eyes, so a full-length film would be a better solution. The result obtained in this case and want to halve the time and double in terms of emotional intensity. For the emotionally most difficult and important moment here falls on the second episode, plus the beginning of the third, when Verlock's involvement in the conspiracy turns into the most tragic consequences for his family and for himself. Thus, in fact, we got the climax almost in the middle of the work, and the rest of the time we are forced to observe a frowning, viscous, like gum, a depressive ending.
5 out of 10