Meeting Gorbachev

Leave it to Werner Herzog. The iconoclastic German film-maker ditches the documentary rule book for this intimate profile of the 88-year-old former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

For all [its] flaws, Meeting Gorbachev remains a fascinating study of a remarkable life.

Despite the film's obvious interest, it is a bit conceited and stately, a little like Wim Wenders' movie about Pope Francis, though without the sycophancy. Or almost.

An important and interesting documentary about tumultuous times, then, but one that slightly suffers for being a touch too dry and over-friendly towards its subject.

Meeting Gorbachev a Werner Herzog documentary with a difference: it could be a documentary by anyone. It is that maddeningly bland.

Herzog and Singer have assembled a riveting and moving portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president and arguably the greatest living politician, guided by Herzog's mellifluous voice and gently probing interview style.

Meeting Gorbachev is about looking into the past from one man's perspective and seeing how a missed opportunity can unravel the entire planet.

The film is a mass of contradictions the muddle-headed Herzog never stops to try and reconcile.

Fell short of expectations.

On the face of it, this could be quite a hard sell, but it's not and the reason for that is the approach taken to questioning. It's not about dryly what happened and instead how Gorbachev feels about it.