The New Yorker by David Denby

The movie is stunningly intelligent; the concluding passages, in which the game abruptly ends for both men, are frightening and, finally, very moving.

Arizona Republic by Richard Nilsen

As in a Le Carré novel, we're given long doses of the private lives of the protagonists, and we learn their secrets, their insecurities and the toll taken by the necessity of constant lying.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

This is a game of numbers, not personalities, and a shrewd man wants the bigger numbers on his side when historians pick up their pens.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

That's another thing about Carion's direction: He has an eye for unusual, atmospheric touches -- the kinds of striking little things you notice in the world and think: "Somebody should put that in a movie."

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

This complicated but absorbing tale is not told through primarily American eyes ( Willem Dafoe plays a CIA. figurehead); primarily it's about French and Soviet brinksmanship, and those who succeeded at it, or failed, and one man who died for the risks he took.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein

As both men lie to loved ones to keep their exchange alive, the tension builds and becomes unbearable.