Real-life spy games with tragic consequences are outlined and explored in The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door (now on HBO Max), a CNN documentary about a 2018 high-profile assassination attempt almost certainly perpetrated by the Russian government. The events turned the provincial town of Salisbury, England upside-down as locals learned that a friendly Russian man in their midst, Sergei Skribal, was a former spy targeted by Vladimir Putin, who allegedly sent two men to poison the retired military veteran. Directed by Daniel Vernon, this doc rehashes the basics while exploring some of the more troubling micro- and macro-implications of this twisty story.

The Gist: Salisbury is a city of 50,000 in southern England, with the cobblestone streets, quaint shops, lush greenery, and friendly residents stereotypical of small towns. Its primary draw is the Salisbury Cathedral, with a 400-foot tower that’s Britain’s tallest. Its nickname is “Smallsbury,” evident of the type of place where  “nothing exciting happens.” So in 2018, when Russian expat Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were rushed to the hospital in a weird, catatonic state, the subsequent arrival of military and government authorities – and then, national and international media – was a rather uncommon occurrence. 

Locals were shocked to learn that Skripal, described by a store clerk as an amiable gentleman who routinely purchased Russian sausage and scratch-off lottery tickets, was a former Russian military officer who flipped and spied on his home country for MI6, and was therefore targeted by Russian president Vladimir Putin as a traitor. Later, we learn that Skripal was, just like Putin, nostalgic for the Soviet Union — but quickly disillusioned by Putin’s deeply corrupt actions. He was captured and imprisoned in a Russian labor camp, freed after a few years thanks to a “spy swap” coordinated by the UK and the United States. He settled in Salisbury under his real name, trusting relative anonymity in an unassuming burg would keep him safe. 

But it wasn’t to be. Russian agents sprayed the door handle to his home with novichok, a nerve agent so deadly, a few drops is enough to kill thousands. The documentary elicits commentary from journalists and government officials — including former Prime Minister Theresa May — as they outline the investigation, dig into the backstory and discuss the implications of the attempted assassination. Implications tragically tied to the story of Charlie Rowley, an economically disadvantaged man who frequently salvaged items from dumpsters. One of those items was a bottle of expensive perfume that he gave to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, as a gift, but it wasn’t perfume at all. It was novichok.  

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Late Russian journalist Alexander Navalny — profiled in Oscar-winning doc Navalny — was also poisoned with novichok. Another Oscar-winning doc, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, offers a tangential story. And BBC limited series The Salisbury Poisonings, starring Anne-Marie Duff and Rafe Spall, dramatized the events.

Performance Worth Watching: Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived their exposure to the agent (Sergei would disappear after being discharged from the hospital). So did Rowley — but Sturgess did not, and Rowley’s brief appearances in this doc are unsurprisingly heartbreaking.

Our Take: A Spy Next Door is an informative what-happened summarization of events that only briefly examines the implications of this awful story. But the implications are nevertheless present, touching on both the political and personal. How old-school Russian politics revere leaders who lie and cheat with impunity as a projection of their power, how propaganda and misinformation prop up such regimes, and how the illusion of safety and security can so easily be shattered, especially in small towns that feel isolated from the larger conflicts of the rest of the world.  

The fact that May’s we-shall-not-tolerate-this bluster gets more screen time than Rowley’s deeply moving story is perhaps representative of the film’s tone and tack. It covers all points of the basic narrative in a thorough if not necessarily deep manner, and sure seems to function on the notion that, hey, they got the former P.M. on camera, so they better use a decent amount of the footage. That’s a CNN-produced documentary for you, for better or worse. 

The revelation that Putin’s Russia fosters what’s essentially an assassination squad to do such dirty work is eye-opening on one hand, but not at all surprising on the other — and in fact, that might make for a more fascinating documentary than covering the relatively well-trod ground in Salisbury. Vernon brushes up against the idea of “the myth of England,” tying it to the insular feelings of living in a rich Western country, but never explores it in any meaningful way. More damning is how the director presents the international response to the poisonings — the expulsion of Russian diplomats from multiple countries and NATO — as an apt political response, but leaving us with the feeling that it isn’t nearly enough.

Our Call: The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door leaves us wanting a little more in-depth analysis, but as a Wikipedia-style narrative catch-all, it’s a nicely informative condensing of events. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.