Interrogation dramas tend to be rather stagy – some might say, un-cinematic – affairs on the whole, and Pascal Verdosci’s Cold War flick Manipulation is no different. Based on Swiss author Walter Matthias Diggelmann’s 1962 novel The Interrogation of Harry Wind, the film gets by on the strength of its performances and narrative intrigue, but comes off perhaps a tad too low-key to deliver the potency one might want from a story involving the startling revelations that the Swiss army had plans to let off nuclear bombs back in the late ‘50s.
The bulk of the film is confined to oppressively drab office interiors, where Urs Rappold (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a counter-intelligence expert who’s spent years successfully weeding out Communists from his people, is attempting to crack his latest case: Harry Wind (The Lives of Others’ Sebastian Koch), a much-respected, influential PR advisor who’s been caught sneaking top secret military documents to a suspected Soviet spy.
It’s a fine, twisty-enough mystery, crafted around the pleasure of watching these two men of stature and power trying to outsmart each other. Koch’s charmingly slippery performance as a masterful spinner of tales allows the viewer ample room for guessing, while Brandauer’s imminent retiree is an effectively subdued portrayal that balances a veteran’s confidence with newfound professional uncertainty. Ultimately more suited to the small screen, and not particularly distinctive, Manipulation nevertheless yields a dash of insight into the Swiss politics of the Red Scare-era alongside its murky cloak-and-daggery.
