Despite being very intrigued by the advertising for this movie when I first saw the trailers for it I almost missed it entirely in the theatres. Based on the worldwide gross I’m going to assume that I’m not the only one. With a cast led by Charlize Theron, and James McAvoy playing one of the supporting characters, the film definitely has enough star power to have done significantly better than it did with the totals it made. And, in truth, I’m surprised it didn’t. Here’s The Verdict.
The Setup
Set in 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the film follows MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) as she’s sent to investigate the death of fellow MI6 agent James Gascoigne, who before his death was in possession of a list containing the names of various spies on both sides of the Cold War conflict, a list that’s wanted by every agency in the world. Nobody wants the list more than British intelligence however as on the list is reported to be the real name of a double-agent known only as “Sachet”, and Broughton is told to bring it back. When she gets to Berlin, however, she quickly learns that that won’t be any easy task given that even before her arrival her cover identity is blown, and her colleague David Percival (James McAvoy) is mysteriously late to the meeting, leaving her to deal with the KGB agents herself.
What follows is a story of espionage and intrigue as Broughton is forced to investigate everyone, including the ever-suspicious Percival, to not only find the list but also find the identity of Satchel. She must go up against the KGB and rogue members of MI6, along with deal with the intrigue surrounding the French agent placed there, and figure out who’s side she’s on as well. The movie is fast paced, with plenty of twists and turns along the way, and the ultimate reveal of just who Satchel really is – and Satchel’s motivations – not coming until the very end. If you think you know what’s going to happen with this one then you’re likely going to be kept guessing at times, and the style of the movie visually and the story make it more than entertaining.
The Delivery
Where to start when talking about this film? Honestly, I’m shocked it didn’t make a lot more money than it did. I can only assume that that’s because the advertising for it didn’t really give us too much of an idea of what it was actually about. I said that recently regarding Ghost in the Shell and the advertising for that lacking any real impact, and it happened again for Atomic Blonde. I didn’t see much television advertising for it, for example, until well after the movie’s release, and it was up against some pretty solid competition so I guess it’s not surprising that it didn’t make too much money, but at least it didn’t cost too much money either (most of which I can imagine was spent on the salary of the actors involved, as I can’t imagine the special effects budget was all that high).
Despite not making the big bucks though there’s so much to compliment about the film. The “style” of the film is evident right from the beginning. This isn’t your typical spy movie where we have white text on the screen to give locations. Instead we’re treated to very different neon spray-paint-like on-screen text, which sets the film apart as different from the very beginning. The style choices for the film don’t end there either. The film pulls no punches when it comes to the “brutality” of what we’re going to see, with Theron in makeup at the very beginning, where she’s being debriefed by British Intelligence, with obvious bruises and cuts on her face. This isn’t a James Bond style spy movie, where Bond is able to kill every enemy without even getting a crinkle in his suit. The film doesn’t shy away from showing us just how brutal the action sequences are, which personally I loved as it adds to everything great about the film. We don’t see a trained super ninja up against a bunch of inept bad-guys here. Instead we get a female spy fighting predominantly men (and in some cases more than one at once) where she doesn’t easily and unrealistically take each of them out but has to use cunning and guile to defeat most of them because in hand-to-hand combat it’s obvious that she’s outmatched. But she has the cunning and the guile she needs, making her a great and compelling heroine (even if we knew from the interrogation setting at the beginning that she was going to make it out alive).
While we may have known the fate of Theron’s character in the beginning there was much doubt in that debriefing/interrogation setting as to the fates of the other characters involved, and there’s good reason for that. This is a spy movie about spies backstabbing and screwing each other over where there isn’t anyone who’s safe! It genuinely feels that way as well, as no matter which character we’re introduced to it does feel like they may not make it out of the other end alive. The “danger” therefore during the film, even though we know Theron’s character can’t die (although when do main characters ever actually die in spy films anyway?), feels real and the stakes are high throughout, especially when she’s working to get one character who’s memorised the list out of East Germany and back to West Germany and safety. She has a plan in the beginning which doesn’t work out at all well, leading to a wonderful sequence where we see Theron leading this guy across the city, each of them taking their knocks, some absolutely great fight sequences and shootout sequences, and a genuine sense of dread throughout. You know that she can’t die, but that doesn’t stop you wanting the guy to survive the whole time, even if his life is truly in the balance.
And what about McAvoy’s character? He’s one of the best things about the whole movie. While only a supporting character to Theron’s main it’s greatly set up that Percival is “Satchel” throughout the film, with his backstabbing and his scheming as he’s obviously truly come to enjoy his time in Berlin, given that he’s clearly been abandoned there by the British to do whatever he needs to in order to get them the information they need. As we learn more about why Broughton was sent in as well it’s obvious that the British don’t complete trust that Percival isn’t Satchel, so they didn’t trust him to get the list back himself. They have good reason not to trust him too, given his backstabbing and his back-alley deals with the Russians to maintain his lifestyle in Germany. At one point he screams out that he “fucking loves Berlin”, and it’s obvious why. He may not be living the high-life exactly but he’s positioned himself to get what he needs out of everyone in the city, and clearly doesn’t want to see the wall fall if he can avoid it given that it’ll ruin everything he’s set up for himself.
Then there’s the character of Delphine Lasalle, played by the quite wonderful Sofia Boutella, who manages to seem completely innocent and absolutely corrupt at the same time. When she first approaches Broughton it’s hard to tell who’s side she’s on, and as her character progresses throughout the film you can’t help but like her, yet still suspect her and wonder for her true motivations. That continues all the way to the end as well as she’s another spy with another agenda, and seeing her die toward the end of the film is actually a sad moment, even if she wasn’t 100% honest about what she was up to throughout. I’d have liked to see her survive, and was hoping she would, but the performance of Sofia Boutella makes me want to watch out for her future roles.
Finally, the twists at the end make this film from good to very good. The first twist is reasonably obvious, they built it up well throughout the film and certainly added enough that you can suspect it was going to happen. They also did enough to not make it the single most obvious twist in the world as well, leaving plenty of doubt so that when it does finally happen you can only smile and say you knew it would, but you can’t have been 100% sure. Then, from there, the film takes another twist – a double-twist – which was just beautiful and leaves the ending open for a potential sequel, which I really hope it gets.
The Verdict
I don’t like to give films ratings out of a certain number because every opinion is subjective and what I like you may not like as much. Instead I’ve been rating films on how I think you should view them and whether or not they’re worth the money to go and watch, and the previous films I’ve outright said that they’re worth renting or watching on Netflix. This film, however, gets my highest rating yet.
Go See It In The Cinema/Buy It On Blu-Ray
Honestly, I’m probably going to do both. The twists at the end make this film worth watching through a second time to see all the clues with the knowledge of how it ends, and it feels like the kind of film I’ll want to give the Blu-ray to friends and tell them to watch. The performances from the cast were spot on, and Charlize Theron only proved again why she’s a genuinely great star (although Mad Max: Fury Road proved that). The story, the style of the film, and the fight scenes are absolutely worth your money, and it’s a real pity that this film didn’t make more than it did. It’s banked less than $100m so far, but on a budget of just $30m I’m hoping that’s enough for the studios to decide they want a sequel, especially if it does well on home release. It’s the kind of film that people are going to discover on Netflix in a few years, think it was really, really good and wonder why they didn’t make a sequel to it I think. All I know is that I saw it in the cinema and didn’t think for a moment that I’d wasted my time or money. You should too, if you still can.