The film is at its best when it drops its focus from action beats, superb though they may be, and redirects itself towards quieter moments
of clandestine favors and conversations between old contacts:
of Zharkov and Cross drinking together and discussing the merits
of Communism;
of Zharkov's heart - felt talk with an Austrian contact whom he
rescued decades ago from a Nazi concentration camp;
of Cross and Scorpio confronting each other first in a midnight botanical gardens and then in a shadowy
parking garage.