PG | 1h 57m | Drama, History, Politics | 2026
Making a movie set mostly in a single room with people talking is a hard sell for most audiences, even if it depicts a historic event; this is the setting for “Brink of War.”
At the time, the 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, between Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniels) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) was considered a failure and a major missed opportunity. In retrospect, the meeting is regarded as a major step forward in nuclear arms reduction and the eventual dismantling of the Soviet Union.
Based on what is presented in “Brink of War,” both Reagan and Gorbachev strayed far enough from the meeting’s original point to alienate each other. Reagan was inflexible when pressing for Soviet human rights reform.
Pet Agendas
On multiple occasions, just when it appeared there would be an actual breakthrough, each man returned to leaning on his pet agendas, and it ultimately all fell apart.While first-time writer-director-producer Michael Russell Gunn seems to have a grasp on the whats and the wherefores of the two meetings, it’s hard to know for sure how much of it actually happened.
Gunn has stated that much of his screenplay is based on interviews he conducted with Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz and on transcripts from the summit.
These transcripts, which were considered top secret until 2016, aren’t really transcripts at all. They are actually brief summaries written by Reagan and Gorbachev after the summit. If there is indeed a word-for-word account of the two men talking, it’s not available to the general public.
Gorbachev’s Fluent English
In “The Brink of War,” there are no interpreters, supposedly because Gorbachev spoke fluent English and needed no interpreter. In actuality, Gorbachev spoke little to no English, and his interpreter never left his side. While Gunn (likely at the studio’s request) did this to avoid those bothersome subtitles, it reminds us that we’re watching a movie.This “artistic license” is taken a step further during Gorbachev’s interactions with his wife, Raisa (Branka Katic), which are also in English. The likelihood of two native Russian spouses not speaking their native tongues when alone together is close to impossible. Also, who was there to “transcribe” these exchanges?
On the upside, Harris nails the Russian accent and, thanks to great hair and makeup, is as close as one would expect to channel Gorbachev. Gunn and Angel Studios went the extra mile in securing the actual historical building (Hofdi House) that hosted the events and hosted the two world leaders.
Gunn also regularly breaks away from the static air of the meeting to spend time with two journalists covering the event. Identified in the press notes only as “journalist” and “Alexander,” the characters were played by Aya Cash and Guy Burnet, respectively. They exchange witty, flirtatious banter and, with good humor, bemoan being regulated to covering some photo ops, including Mrs. Gorbachev. These are also the only two fictional characters with speaking parts.
This leads to more questions. A quick internet search of the title states “The Brink of War” is a movie “dramatizing true events at the 1986 Reykjavik meeting,” or, in other words, partially based on a true story. This is movie doublespeak for “not everything presented actually happened” or “some of what we’re going to show you here actually happened.”
Wrong Casting
This still isn’t the worst aspect of the movie. Except for successfully imitating Reagan’s imposing gait, Daniels’s rendering is an absolute train wreck. Appearing not even to try to capture Reagan’s voice, speech patterns, or facial expressions, Daniels is way out of his depth here.Daniels has played historical figures before (George Washington, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain), but these are men with unknown speech patterns, not one of the most photographed and filmed people of all time.
Playing someone so famous, so relatively close to the date of the event depicted, requires far more nuance than Daniels puts forth. Forget that Daniels and Reagan are ideological worlds apart. He was the wrong guy for this role.
Just a quick “based on true events” title card at the opening would have cured so many of the movie’s ills, but there is no cure or fix for Daniels in this role.
