The Brink of War (2026)
Directed by: Michael Russell Gunn
Premise: Based on true events. In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniels) and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) meet in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss dismantling their nuclear arsenals.
What Works: The Brink of War is an aspirational story about two world leaders sorting through a complicated and contentious issue. The film is fairly balanced between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev both in terms of screentime and with regard for their priorities. As portrayed here, both men wanted to eliminate nuclear weapons but Gorbachev was insistent that Reagan abandon the Strategic Defense Initiative and Reagan kept pressing Gorbachev on human rights. While The Brink of War unfolds from the American point of view, the filmmakers are willing to empathize with the Soviet position. Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris impress as Reagan and Gorbachev. Neither actor looks much like their historical counterpart but their performances humanize these men and Daniels and Harris convey the weight of the responsibility that each of them carries for the world’s future.
What Doesn’t: The Brink of War was written directly for the screen but it comes across as material that would have been better as a stage play. It’s very talky but the filmmakers aren’t able to make this story sufficiently cinematic. The filmmaking is sometimes clumsy. The camera movement and the framing are unusual but not in a way that illuminates the subtext of a scene. The random zooms and edits are distracting. The pacing is quite slow. For a movie about the possibility of nuclear annihilation, The Brink of War is quite boring, even tedious. The story includes a subplot about each president’s spouse. Raisa Gorbachev (Branka Katic) accompanied her husband to Reykjavik while Nancy Reagan (Hope Davis) opted to stay in Washington D.C. The scenes between the couples do help to humanize them but the subtle competition between the two women does not come to anything. As a historical drama, The Brink of War simplifies and distorts history, especially in the ending. The initial idea, that Reagan and Gorbachev are here to sort out the nuclear weapons problem, is revealed to be a ruse on Reagan’s part. This plays as an excuse for the failure of the summit. As Tom Nichols writes at The Atlantic, the filmmakers give Reagan and the Reykjavik meeting too much credit for the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.
Bottom Line: There is an admirable spirit to The Brink of War but the filmmakers force meaning onto a historical event. As a piece of cinema, the film is awkward and too long.
Episode: #1113 (August 23, 2026)