‘The Brink of War’ Review: Reagan and Gorbachev Engage in Unengaging Verbal Battle
Variety film critic Guy Lodge has reviewed "The Brink of War," a new historical drama from faith-based distributor Angel Studios about the 1986 Reykjavik Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, calling it earnest but dull. The film, from writer-director Michael Russell Gunn, dramatises the two days of talks that helped pave the way for the following year's US-Soviet nuclear arms control treaty, but the review argues its stiff, static staging squanders potentially high dramatic stakes and leans heavily into "textbook American patriotism."
Jeff Daniels plays Reagan and Jared Harris plays Gorbachev, with the drama largely confined to the two leaders arguing at a table in a remote Icelandic consulate over ballistic missile bans, human rights and Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. It arrives shortly after Angel Studios' Fourth of July release "Young Washington," which has taken nearly $47 million at the box office, and shares its patriotic, "values-based" sensibility; "The Brink of War" opens wide in US cinemas on Friday.
- Variety reviews Angel Studios' "The Brink of War," calling it dull.
- Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris play Reagan and Gorbachev at Reykjavik.
- Film opens wide in US theatres this Friday.
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Reagan and Gorbachev were the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War, the long standoff between the two superpowers and their nuclear arsenals. In October 1986 they met in Reykjavik, Iceland, for talks that focused on limiting ballistic missiles, human rights and Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defence plan. Although the summit itself broke down without agreement, it is widely seen as having laid the groundwork for a landmark US-Soviet arms control treaty signed the following year.
That summit is now the subject of a new film, made by Angel Studios, a distributor known for faith-based and "values-based" family entertainment. Jeff Daniels plays Reagan and Jared Harris plays Gorbachev, with much of the action set around a negotiating table in Iceland. Angel Studios has had recent commercial success with similarly patriotic historical dramas, including one about George Washington released earlier this year.
The story here concerns how critics are responding to the film ahead of its wide US cinema release, rather than the historical events it depicts.