Atomic Blonde *** (2017, Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Bill Skarsgård, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella) – Movie Review

Actor, stuntman, writer, producer, stunt coordinator and film director David Leitch was a stunt double for Brad Pitt five times and twice for Jean-Claude Van Damme.

His breakthrough came directing some scenes in John Wick (2014), which eventually gave him a chance to direct the savagely tough, exciting and heartless 2017 caper Atomic Blonde. So we expect lots of state-of-the-art stunts and action, and that’s exactly what we get – in bucket-loads.

We also get blonde bombshell Charlize Theron, who, having won an Oscar for Monster, weirdly has now turned herself into an action star in her forties, following A Million Ways to Die in the West and Mad Max: Fury Road. And very good she is too – brilliant, quite awesome, actually. Theron is a force of nature, combining brains, brawn and beauty. She certainly could be Wonder Woman, though of course a different Gal took that gig.

Supposedly Keanu Reeves talked Theron into playing undercover MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents. Doesn’t Reeves like Theron very much? What was he trying to do, get her killed? The reality is, they worked together in Sweet November (2001), a sweet but forgotten movie of the first phase of Theron’s fame, and obviously have stayed friends.

Theron looks like she’s throwing herself body and soul into her action role here. She has a couple of prolonged fight sequences that really do worry you about her safety. I don’t want to see anything bad happening to Charlize. She is too precious. I’m not sure I really like seeing her bashed up and knocked about either, but maybe that’s just me. There is a lot of intense and scary violence in this movie, rather too much for comfort. The film pushes harder than it needs. A gentler, softer touch would be OK now and again. It does not have to be full on all the time. But it is!

Incidentally, while we see Theron slammed against a (padded) wall in the crucial fight on the marble staircase, her fall down the (also padded) stairs was done by Canadian stunt woman Monique Ganderton. This whole sequence is astoundingly well done, recalling Matt Damon’s hand to hand fight in The Bourne Identity, as well as Reeves’s fighting in John Wick.

Kurt Johnstad has carved out a packed and busy screenplay, based on the Oni Press graphic novel series The Coldest City written by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart. It works well, much better than the average script from a graphic novel. It feels a bit 007, a bit Jason Bourne, but with a bit more flash and trash. It’s pulpy and that’s good here.

The production is great. The CGI seamless. The sets perfect. The stunts amazing. It is a posh looking film for what is basically at heart a B-movie, in the good way that Taken is B-movie.

I’d have liked a little heart, along with Theron’s body and soul. But it’s not that kind of movie. It does have a sense of humour, but it’s a dark and nasty one. The film it most reminds me of is Deadpool. It shares its unpleasant comic book attitudes, with its offhand casual violence and sadistic sense of humour.

This seems to be in vogue right now, along with Ryan Reynolds and Theron. They have both been around for ever, and, though always popular, it has taken them 20 years to become super-big. I’m glad it has happened for both of them. However, neither Deadpool nor Atomic Blonde are going to be on my list of favourite movies, much as I liked and enjoyed them. But only up to a point. They are just too nasty for fun.

For an all-action, non-stop action thriller and Theron star vehicle, the support actors surprisingly get a little look in and mostly make an impression. John Goodman and Toby Jones are good value as Emmett Kurzfeld and Eric Gray, the spy men interrogating Charlize’s Lorraine Broughton about her mission in Berlin, where she was sent to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

James Faulkner is solid as the chilly ‘M’-style MI6 chief ‘C’ over-seeing the interrogation. Eddie Marsan seems miscast as Spyglass, the foreign agent Lorraine is rescuing to get hold of the list, which he has memorised. As French agent Delphine Lasalle, Sofia Boutella gets to kiss and make love to Theron, mmmm, but that’s about the extent of her role. 

Rising star Bill Skarsgård is fun and makes an impression but could have more to do as Lorraine’s little helper Merkel (named after you know who, I guess). Roland Møller is good and scary as the Russian villain Aleksander Bremovych. Til Schweiger and Barbara Sukowa are wasted as the Watchmaker and the Coroner.

I’ve forgotten too mention James McAvoy as David Percival, the British station chief agent in Berlin who greets Lorraine and welcomes her to Germany. It is the other main role in the movie. McAvoy keeps insisting on playing hard, extreme and whacked-out characters that really don’t suit him. He’s wrong for this role, and is uneasy in it.

Neon-flashy, smart, slick and edgy, Atomic Blonde can be considered a success, and it is good, even very good, though perhaps not quite as good as it thinks it is. But, then again, confidence gets you everywhere.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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