The end of Cold War was supposed to remove the need for intelligence agencies or, at least, significantly reduce their workload. This notion, which was more credible quarter of century ago than today, is used as a basic premise for History Is Made at Night, 1999 comedy directed by Ikka Järvi-Latturi. Both CIA and SVR (Russian post-Communist successor to Soviet KGB) have very little to do in new circumstances, but they nevertheless keep their agents in various parts of the world, just in case. One of those places is Helsinki where CIA agent Harry Howe (played by Bill Pullman) and his SVR counterpart Natasha Scriabina (played by Irene Jacob) don’t have anything to spy on other than each other. After a while they become close and their relationship evolves into romance. Their idyll is interrupted with an arrival of mysterious pornographic videotape which contains satellite codes that could allow control over the world. Both CIA and SVR want to get the tape at all cost, so Harry and Natasha now have to choose between patriotic duty and feelings they have for each other.
Finnish director Ikka Järvi-Latturi was best known for his previous film, dark action comedy Darkness in Talinn which, despite becoming the most successful film in history of Estonian cinema, left much to be desired. History Is Made at Night, made in co-production of number of European countries, is much more polished work with international stars and high budget. Järvi-Latturi successfully combines spy thriller with romantic comedy, while taking somewhat ironic distance from the plot which allows both genres to be parodied. The plot is complex, yet rather thin and not particularly convincing, but Järvi-Latturi brings sufficient amounts of humour and couple of effective action scenes to compensate for such flaws. Bill Pullman is quite effective in the role of a charming man who, when need arises, can become stone-cold killer, while Irene Jacob, heroine of bleak dramas by Krzysztof Kieslowski, obviously enjoys playing a comedic role. The most pleasant surprise is Glenn Plummer, actor who usually played outlandish streetwise characters, who is here almost unrecognisable as by-the-boook Washington bureaucrat. However, zhe most attractive element of this film is Helsinki whose exotic architecture, relaxed atmosphere and night scene dominated by jazz music might win even those viewers who care little about spy thriller parodies.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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