A Spy Among Friends

The writers and directors display consummate authority over the subject matter, and that expertise frees Pearce and Lewis to give two of the year’s best performances.

“A Spy Among Friends” does move at a good pace, with a few lulls here and there. However, there are points where the toggling between various timelines threatens to lose the plot. Thankfully, the three central performances from Maxwell Martin, Lewis, and Pearce hold it together, and this spy—and friendship—story is anything but by the book.

The densely webbed structure is much suited to a story where truth eludes capture. The viewer’s proper attention is called for, and can be freely given in part thanks to performances so punctilious and finely wrought that it doesn’t seem to matter that Pearce is required to cover 30 years and Lewis 20.

It rewards a patient and attentive viewer, an audience invested in the minutiae of friendships pushed to the brink, with newer revelations constantly forcing you to wonder anew whether anyone’s intentions and motivations can really be known, let alone trusted.

As well-told as it is here, I'm not so sure it needs to be told again in the first place.

The story of Philby and the Cambridge spy ring is one of the most fascinating tales of 20th-century British history (or, as it’s now known, the Ben Macintyre Cinematic Universe). It’s a shame, then, that the questions of class, capitalism and clemency, innate to the tale, are subordinated to easy moral signposting.

Perhaps it suffers from an unfortunate comparison with another recent series adapted from a Macintyre book, SAS Rogue Heroes, which channels its fascinating history lesson into something far more vivacious and entertaining. This is all very fine and elegant, but it’s lacking in charisma.