Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.
Wasp Network tackles an intriguing real-life Cold War espionage story — Cuban spies infiltrating anti-Castro exile groups in Miami — but Olivier Assayas struggles to marshal its sprawling ensemble and non-linear structure into a coherent narrative. The plot feels fragmented and emotionally distant, never quite landing the tension its premise promises. The acting is competent across a strong international cast (Penélope Cruz, Édgar Ramírez, Gael García Bernal, Wagner Moura), though no single performance truly elevates the material. Cinematography is polished and period-appropriate without being visually distinctive. The subject matter — the Cuban Five spy ring — is underexplored in cinema and gives the film genuine novelty in its historical focus, even if the execution is uneven. The ending, which attempts to reframe the entire story with a moral clarification, feels abrupt and didactic rather than satisfying.