‘The Brink of War’ Review: Jeff Daniels Makes an Unpersuasive Ronald Reagan in Talky Historical Drama About Nuclear Summit With Gorbachev
The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck reviews "The Brink of War," director Michael Russell Gunn's feature debut dramatising the 1986 Reykjavik summit between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which helped pave the way for a nuclear arms reduction treaty. While praising the film's intentions, the review finds it overly talky and prone to speechifying, with familiar catchphrases deployed like "greatest hits," resulting in a drama that only intermittently comes to life despite its historically significant subject matter.
Jeff Daniels stars as Reagan opposite Jared Harris as Gorbachev, with a supporting cast including Hope Davis, Branka Katic, J.K. Simmons, Aya Cash and Guy Burnet. Notably, the production filmed at the actual Icelandic location where the historic talks took place, and the review singles out Katic's performance as Raisa Gorbachev. The PG-rated film runs 1 hour 57 minutes and is set for release on Friday, 14 August.
In short
- New film dramatises the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev Reykjavik nuclear summit
- Review calls it talky and overly didactic despite good intentions
- Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris star; out 14 August
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
A historical drama about Cold War diplomacy necessarily pivots on dialogue and speeches—this reflects the genuine nature of the summit rather than constituting a dramatic flaw. By faithfully rendering Reagan's actual language and the authentic Icelandic setting, the film prioritises historical substance and the intellectual weight of nuclear negotiations over manufactured excitement. The drama emerges from the collision of Cold War philosophies and the moral stakes of arms reduction, qualities that validate the film's conversational rhythm.
The case against
A dramatisation must translate historical events into engaging cinema, not merely document them. This film indulges in extended speeches and deploys Reagan's famous catchphrases like familiar reference points rather than developing character and theme organically, creating narrative inertia. Whilst the subject matter is weighty and location filming authentic, the film's failure to sustain dramatic energy throughout suggests that historical fidelity alone cannot compensate for dialogue-heavy storytelling that undermines the emotional engagement audiences expect from cinema.
Explained simply
In 1986, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss reducing their countries’ nuclear weapons. The talks did not produce an agreement at the time, but they helped prepare the ground for a later arms reduction treaty.
The meeting took place during the Cold War, a long period of rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, when both held large nuclear arsenals. Any move to limit those weapons mattered because it could reduce the risk of a catastrophic conflict.
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