Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Kurt Johnstad, based upon The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart
Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella
IMDb Link
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
Atomic Blonde follows Cold War MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) as she tells the tale of her last mission, wherein she had to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and retrieve the item he was carrying, which contains the identities of all MI6 agents, including a double agent for the KGB known only as 'Satchel'. The film is presented through Broughton's perspective, as she is interrogated by her superior (Toby Jones) and a CIA agent (John Goodman).
Broughton tells us her experiences with contact David Percival (McAvoy); Broughton paints Percival as larger than life, loud and anarchic yet still so incredibly skilled as to use that punk persona as another cover, and move about the city unseen as he needs to. Both Theron and McAvoy play their characters incredibly well. luckily, their performances weren't lost in the overly complicated plot. There are so many things going on in this film, and they aren't particularly well juggled. In Broughton's story alone we have to deal with the inclusion of characters that are introduced to seem important only to be killed off later, and unnecessary story additions that ultimately get relegated to the background because there's so little development to them. It can't just be a man Gasciogne was killed and Percival is secretly responsible, there has to be another man who killed Gasciogne with Percival's information, only to be later killed by Percival so that Percival can use the information to make a deal with the KGB to kill off Broughton and Spyglass, who is the only other man with access to the spy information, because for some reason there needs to be yet another side plot for Broughton to investigate, while Spyglass has a family as well that just exists and doesn't need to be there. There's so much that screams "this was all in the comic and we couldn't figure out how to cut it entirely so we just threw it in where we could, without regard for pacing or emotional impact". Moments like the death of Spyglass or Sofia Boutella's Delphine seem to have these attempts at tugging your heartstrings, but these characters get so little time it's just a bland throw-away moment. Then there's the additional layer to the story, the reveal that all of this being Broughton's perspective was intentional in order to reveal to the audience that Broughton was Satchel the whole time. It's a really cool twist, that would've been way cooler if the film had actually been about finding out who Satchel was the whole time, but because the film is so lacking in story focus the reveal's impact is reduced. The impact is then further reduced by the apparent need for Broughton's character to come out of the film on the audience's good side. Rather than sting the audience with the knowledge that they just spent the duration of the movie barracking for the wrong character, they have to have another twist five minutes after its initial twist. So, Broughton is not just and MI6 double agent for the KGB, she's a KGB double agent for the CIA.
The plot is not something that should be fit in to two hours; it's a cool idea, especially with the implications and eventual twist that come with telling it from Broughton's point of view, but there's a lot of small pieces that are forced in to place for the audience so that we can follow along. The film creates the assumption that any time we learn a piece of information that, because of the format of the movie, the interrogators are learning it too, but the film cheats on this a few times to line up a surprise reveal to the interrogators with a different surprise reveal to the audience. The cheat is complicated further by the fact that the scenes that cheat are ones that Broughton has no perspective on because she wasn't there for; one scene is accounted for, but another can't even be a lie because she has no idea it even happened. This is further made an issue by the meaning of the double lie: the fact that Broughton is not a double, but in fact a triple agent is supposed to be a soft forgiveness of her character, making her "good" and absolving her sins in the movie in the eyes of the audience, but it's so out of left field and gels so poorly with the idea that the whole original tale is a lie that it not only has no effect on the audience, it diminishes the effect of the initial twist and just adds unnecessary complexity to an already unnecessarily complex spy thriller.
Alright, so the movie's a mess in terms of plot, but what it does with everything else more than makes up for the experience.
The action is fantastic in terms of both choreography and visuals. I appreciate the director's penchant for using long takes; the action is shot smoothly and coherently, and it allows every punch, kick, stab and bone break to have its moment of impact, all while the characters fight using every tool available to them. It's all stylised in that gritty, hyper-realistic way that's been seen most recently in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017); characters take a ridiculous amount of punishment, but because the movie takes the time to remind us that they are hurt, it's easier to suspend disbelief for it. One scene in particular, utilising a staircase in an apartment building as its set, is a feat of filmmaking that shows the best of what the film has to offer. A continuous shot that keeps the action easy to follow, with fight after fight that displays choreography that comes off as naturally scrappy.
Outside of the action, I have to gives praise to this film's sense of style and sound. The Neon business is alive and well and 80s synth soundtracks are making a comeback, all of which is good news to my eyes and ears. The colour in this film is fantastic, not only making use of Neon to evoke a mix of style and base emotions through colour, but contrasting it with clean and cold whites and blacks in sets such as the interrogation to reinforce a sense that the story Broughton is telling is embellished. Meanwhile the movie's music is both setting appropriate and excellent at setting the tone of the film. While you might find it difficult to care about the plot details of each scene, it's very easy to listen to and understand the intended impact of each scene while you appreciate musical compositions that would be right at home in the film's setting. As it stands, the movie isn't one you'll want to think about, but it's better to look at and listen to than a lot of bigger movies I've seen this year.
The Verdict: Atomic Blonde is an awesome action piece inside of a convoluted espionage thriller. It's gorgeous to look at and listen to, but its story is a mess of a fake tale wrapped up in a mess of another fake tale told to us in this way entirely for the purpose of a satisfying twist that ends up pointless. By my nature, I have to recommend it for the action scenes that are as impressive as the likes of the John Wick movies, but the plot feels like they took Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and jammed it haphazardly together with an action movie.
Rating: 6.5/10
Published Thursday, August 10th, 2017
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