Atomic Blonde
13/08/17 Filed in: Cinema
I saw the trailer for this a while ago and decided to put it on my mental future viewing list, and it was released this week. We saw it on Friday and I wasn't disappointed. When I first saw the trailer I didn't realise that it starred Charlize Theron, so that was a bit of a bonus.
The action takes place largely in Berlin at the time the 'Wall' was about to come down. Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, a top MI6 agent who is dispatched to Berlin after another agent, James Gascoigne, is killed. Gascoigne had obtained a list of agents and their covers, this information being secreted within an expensive watch. Broughton is to liaise with MI6's Berlin station chief, David Percival, played by James McEvoy. It all goes wrong from the off, with Broughton being picked up by two KGB agents, posing as Percival's representatives, while in fact working for a billionaire arms dealer, Aleksander Bremovych. She's not that easily duped, however, and deals with the two of them while Percival is in hot pursuit in his Porsche. The Percival/Broughton relationship thus doesn't get off to a good start.
The film is in fact told mostly in narrative, as Broughton is debriefed after returning to London bruised and bloodied, the reasons for this becoming clear as the plot unfolds. Basically it's a classic spy thriller, with the audience being left unsure who is working for whom, and even when you think you've worked that out, something else happens to make you doubt what you have just assumed. In addition to Percival and the KGB, we have a French agent Delphine Lasalle, played seductively by Sofia Boutelle, who made the Mummy look quite appealing in the recent Tom Cruise film. In this film she becomes Broughton's love interest, while adding to the intrigue as one tries to work out the affiliations of the various players.
The list is in the hands of KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin, Gascoigne's killer, who's looking to make his own pile of money by disposing of it. So everybody is looking for him. Percival was supposed to obtain the list from a contact, a Stasi officer code named Spyglass, but Spyglass had handed the watch to Gascoigne and feels that he has delivered his part of the deal, and now wants to be transported to West Berlin with his wife and child. Percival says no list, no deal, but relents when Spyglass says that he has memorised the entire contents of the list.
So far, so good, but after this things can become very confusing. The operation to transport Spyglass to the West is a set up, and we're left wondering who Percival is really working for, while Broughton despite her best endeavours to secure the escape, ends up dealing with a group of KGB assassins. At this point there are some fight scenes that are quite brutal, and it appears that it really is Theron being thrown around and generally beaten up. She has in fact confirmed that she trained with fighters so that she could do these stunts herself, and I must say that the sequences are truly impressive. It's not the usual staged affair where everybody seems to have inexhaustible energy. We see Broughton and one of her adversaries literally taking a break to regain their strength after a particularly brutal exchange.
So far, so good, but after this things can become very confusing. The operation to transport Spyglass to the West is a set up, and we're left wondering who Percival is really working for, while Broughton despite her best endeavours to secure the escape, ends up dealing with a group of KGB assassins. At this point there are some fight scenes that are quite brutal, and it appears that it really is Theron being thrown around and generally beaten up. She has in fact confirmed that she trained with fighters so that she could do these stunts herself, and I must say that the sequences are truly impressive. It's not the usual staged affair where everybody seems to have inexhaustible energy. We see Broughton and one of her adversaries literally taking a break to regain their strength after a particularly brutal exchange.
Throughout we learn of a double agent code named Satchel and each time you think you know who this may be, you end up disillusioned. The truth, when it emerges, will I think surprise most viewers, but even when that truth is unveiled there's another twist to finish things off.
The reviews have been middling and I accept that the plot is verging on the ridiculous, but probably no more so than some of the extremely successful Bond films. That said, for my money it's worth seeing just to test your powers of deduction as the plot unfolds, with the superb fight sequences being a bonus. Charlize Theron is in very good shape.