A film must get everything right to class itself as a must-watch. Look at 2017 films such as Get Out and Spiderman: Homecoming as examples of must-sees that all your peers waxed lyrical about, garnering enough hype around them. These were so successful, because the beginning middle and ending was strong.
Then you get those that so nearly make it there, but fail somewhat. Sunshine‘s ending is infamous these days, while Titanic still feels the brunt of an over-emotional ending to a frustrating last ten minutes. Frustration is also the correct word when speaking about Atomic Blonde.
The 411
Atomic Blonde is a 2017 spy film directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2). It stars Charlize Theron (Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road), James McAvoy (Split, Filth), John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Monsters, Inc.), Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds), Eddie Masran (V For Vendetta) and Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Mummy).
Theron stars as Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 agent during the Cold War. She retells her last days in Berlin before the Wall comes down in 1989 as she speaks about the events that took place that led to her holding and questioning by her MI6 superior Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld (Goodman). She speaks about her working relationship with fellow MI6 agent, David Percival (McAvoy) as they are both looking for a watch containing The List: a microfilm containing the names of every Soviet field agent. Her other task is to assassinate Satchel, a double agent who betrayed MI6 and ultimately led to the death of Gascoigne, an MI6 agent who obtained the List before he was killed. While jumping between East and West, Lorraine has to figure out who she can trust and who is her enemy as her suspicions rise to those closest to her.
Reel Talk
As a cinema geek, I like many, have a preference in genre. Traditionally, spy movies are nowhere near the top of my list. That being said, a great spy movie can get me enthralled. What makes Atomic Blonde such a great watch is its alternative look to the more traditional spy flicks like the James Bond series.
Where the more traditional would look for suits, guns and a classiness to the set, David Leitch’s solo directorial debut uses graffiti animation to caption the time and place. It has an uncanny resemblance to Suicide Squad in that sense where the green and purple colours spray onto the screen with eighties punk and rock music playing in the background. And this isn’t just artsy for the sake of being artsy – it fits the feeling of Berlin, which can still be felt today. A quick tour around modern-day Berlin (east side especially) shows a city laced in culture, colour and grit; with a cool atmosphere everywhere you go. Atomic Blonde does the city and in turn the story, a service.
It is worth mentioning that this style also comes from the graphic novel that the film is based on: The Coldest City. You can see these comic book influences in the colour and design in every scene. Berlin, as it were in the dying days of the wall, was in places a dingy city and that comes through on-screen.
Sound plays an important role throughout too. If you like the soundtracks to Stranger Things, GLOW or Deutschland 83, you will love this. It’s full of eighties classics like German-language songs Der Kommissar and 99 Luftballons as well as British tracks London Calling (The Clash) and Cities in Dust (Siouxsie and the Banshees). I wasn’t even around in the eighties and it felt like a massive nostalgia trip. I’ll get onto the action scenes momentarily, but the sound effects of gunshots, furniture breaking and physical attacks are exquisite.
The cinematography is very similar to Leitch’s previous project, John Wick. There seems to be an abundance of shaky cam and first-person camera shots. These again, work fantastically in the action sequences where drama is around the corner in every movement. One of the best camera shots is Lorraine breathing heavily in the elevator as she awaits more attackers and the door’s slowly open.
And if you cannot tell by now, the action scenes never get boring. Having watched a brilliant film in Spiderman: Homecoming, the way the action was shot in that film did not compliment the narrative of the fights itself, which deserved better. Here, Atomic Blonde manages to do the opposite and compile some incredible sequences together that keeps you guessing. Although Lorraine is a well-respected spy, she gets on the decent end of punches and gunshots. She doesn’t clean off Stasi agents as if it were boys against men. It’s entirely realistic considering that Lorraine’s stature is hardly intimidating to the guys she is fighting.
Not only that, but a lot of the deaths in these scenes are not just ‘bang bang, you’re dead’, they are more inventive. Lorraine uses her stiletto to pierce someone’s jugular, as well as hanging a man as she ties his neck around a rope that she uses to abseil down to a lower balcony. Even in the gunshots, like the final fight, we see artistic blood splatters and contrasting design to create a Wes Anderson-esque style. Add in the slow-mos that are present throughout and it’s clear to see why Atomic Blonde has been praised so highly for these scenes. Action can easily be bogged down to a few shaky cameras and close up punches to create flat drama; but Atomic Blonde perfects this.
To add to this, Charlize Theron’s Lorraine is the perfect feminist character without having to wave her arms around telling us it. She’s no-nonsense and opportunistic. Again, she’s not perfect – she finds herself being helped out by Percival more than once – but she equally doesn’t roll over for anyone. Percival is a more intriguing character. McAvoy plays a maverick spy who is as far away from the suits and martinis as you can get. He often collects information by hanging out at underground punk parties and raves and aggravates the more professional Lorraine. That being said, there is more to his story than what lets on. Soon, Percival and Lorraine work against each other due to a lack of trust.
The only other character that has a lot of screen time aside from the two agents interviewing Lorraine and Spyglass (Eddie Masran) who isn’t seen throughout, is Delphine Lasalle (Boutella). She is a French spy who becomes Lorraine’s lover and ally, while she also works against the French women. I think McAvoy is a standout here, but I really enjoyed Delphine on-screen – an honest portrayal of a spy who is in way over their head and becomes overwhelmed by her task, as well as complacent in the company of the questionable Lorraine and Percival.
Despite expecting to see a satisfying finale that would round off an enjoyable near-two hours of action, I was left scratching my head and as I said earlier, frustrated. I do not want to ruin the ending to those still interested in watching it so I will say this, you will feel cheated leaving the cinema. I love a good plot twist. I really do. What I don’t like though, is a plot twist on top of a plot twist, on top of a plot twist. For large parts of the film, Percival is viewed as a untrustworthy, yet in the end, it’s difficult to tell if he was a bad guy or if he was in fact good. A well-rounded film should be able to show someone’s motives easily while keeping the audience suspended. Frankly, a much-more satisfying end would be leaving it at the end of the interview between Eric, Emmett and Lorraine – even if it would leave out the brilliant final fight scene. Even at that, some motives remain murky and to throw all of that into the last ten minutes of a film without giving the audience time to process it or piece together the puzzle, makes what should be a climatic end, a little anti-climatic.
Atomic Blonde has all the makings of a classic. It has a great cast, especially with the two main actors. It’s sexy. The main character is a badass female spy that never relies on tokenism. The design, sound and style is incredibly cool, even if it at times seems like it’s trying too hard (i.e. Lorraine taking an ice bath and so casually, dropping a few ice cubes in a glass beside her and pouring vodka into it is self-indulgent). As mentioned, the action scenes are first class. Yet, with all of this, the weak and confusing ending really leaves Atomic Blonde with a sour taste in its mouth. It may be better with a second watch, but first impressions count.
Grade: B
The Drive IN 