Restless – William Boyd

How does an individual feel when she is expected to develop rather intimate relations with another person to help accomplish a third person’s goals? A carefully woven web, where she is made to feel important but her dilemma and emotions are ruthlessly side tracked for a bigger picture.

Violated? Powerful? Sorry? How does it feel to be a honeytrap?

Eva Delectorskaya felt all three as she ran out of the discreet, posh hotel room post being photographed in a compromising position with a powerful US senator. As she hurriedly buttons herself up, checks her makeup and hair at the foot of the stairs, the camera catches the emotions in her eyes – that of an animal caught in a net.  No matter how nonchalant Eva acts she knows deep down that she will live and die a spy.

One, who systematically indulges in betrayal to prove her loyalty.

Few figures throughout history are as compelling as female spies.  Whether you think of them as sleuths or femme fatales, most of them have been exceptionally brave and have done things for the country/ regime they believed in which we cannot even imagine emulating.

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I came across Restless (a two part miniseries) created for BBC1 based on William Boyd’s novel by the same name, recently as I meandered aimlessly on the virtual sphere. It was time well spent 🙂

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There are 2 parallel stories going on set 35 years apart.

It starts with a rather fetching in a hippie avatar young woman Ruth played by Michelle Dockery (of downtown Abbey fame) visiting her mother with her young son. The mother played with elan by Charlotte Rampling (age I can see has increased her beauty manifold!) lives in a country cottage with empty stretches all around.  Pure, far from maddening crowd set up. It seems like an idyllic setting for a little break for Ruth and her son, when one evening Ruth’s mom pushes a file in her direction and informs her that someone is lurking around waiting for an opportune moment to kill her.

Ruth laughs her off.  I mean people who are getting old sometimes say odd things and you need not take them seriously even if she is your mother.

The name on the file says Eva Delectorskaya; Ruth soon learns that her mother has all along lead a double life! She is in fact a Russian girl Eva who was WWII spy for Britain. Along with Ruth the audience are taken back to the early 1940s.  Hayley Atwell as the young Eva is pure delight – transporting herself rather believably from the innocent emigrant girl who was devastated by her young brother’s death to the professional spy who can kill someone by simply jabbing them in the eye with a sharp pencil. And then take that pencil out without batting an eyelid as blood oozes out  making the death look like a mere fatal accident.

Eva was initiated to the world of Mata Hari with the best advice – a) Never trust anyone and b) Never assume anything as a co incidence by her mentor Lucas Romer played by a suave Rufus Sewell.

The action moves between Paris, Scotland, fictitious Dutch border own, USA and part of SA and of course Britain. The twists and turns keep you engaged.  And yes, like in a well done spy thriller there is love, betrayal and revenge. At some point Ruth gets dragged in her mother’s war; the mother she believed was nothing but a perfect English homemaker. The mother was at some point everything but it. And someone who could not let her past go. What if one day I come to know my parents are not really who I thought they were? I think I will freak. Ruth was far more stoic (in her expressions as well !)  Should we involve our children in our past? And even if we do, how much of the past still matters? There are far bigger questions involved in the plot that does not get addressed in the film. Those are for conversations over cocktails as my blog name suggests 😉

A lot of detailing, good cinematography and above all superb casting make it an enjoyable watch. The plot has some loopholes but that’s because I read too many crime thrillers.

Oh and for us Indians there is a serious DDLJ moment when Eva desperately wants the man she loved to turn around and give her a backward glance J

Go, get yourself some wine and watch it over the weekend.

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PS: There is an instance where Eva looking fetching in a polka dotted dress, white rimmed sunglass and heels waits for an important package in a barren land, smoking one cigarette after another while her car is at least a mile off on the highway. She is not harmed at any point. In fact she returns safe and sound back to her motel.  We live in a non -war era.  I wondered how many women can replicate that in today’s context and come home safe.