Atomic Blonde
Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Kurt Johnstad - Based on the graphic novel series "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart
Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, Bill Skarsgård, Eddie Marsan, Roland Møller, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sam Hargrave, Til Schweiger, James Faulkner
Action/Mystery/Thriller - 115 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 27 Jul 2017
Written by: Kurt Johnstad - Based on the graphic novel series "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart
Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, Bill Skarsgård, Eddie Marsan, Roland Møller, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sam Hargrave, Til Schweiger, James Faulkner
Action/Mystery/Thriller - 115 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 27 Jul 2017
I was living in West Germany when the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, but as a nine year-old fourth grader, the original Super Mario Bros. had more of an impact on me at the time. Recently, Hollywood has used the Wall as a set piece with impressive results. Spielberg crafted a phenomenal tracking shot of the Wall’s creation as a bicyclist peddled along the construction zone in Bridge of Spies (2015). Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill tried to kill each other in slapstick action fashion along the Wall in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015). In Atomic Blonde, a spy thriller comic book adaptation, director David Leitch employs a Wall that is hardly a barrier at all. Characters seem to crisscross it at will bopping back and forth between West and East Berlin. These are all top-tier international men and women of mystery mind you, but watching Ronald Reagan urge Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” is superfluous; it is not stopping all the skullduggery in Atomic Blonde.
Leitch has some fun exploiting the time and place to take us all back to 1989. British MI6 agent David Percival (James McAvoy, Split) exchanges luxury goods for information in the East holding court in the club-kid scene. Jack Daniels, and especially Jordache jeans, are coveted black market merchandise. Yet, more than props and fashion, you will hear 1989 more than you will see it. The soundtrack is wall to wall ‘80s new wave. As soon as I caught on to what Leitch was doing with the music, I only had to count the seconds until “99 Luftballons” made an appearance. They’re all here, “Der Kommissar”, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and so on. My friend mentioned during the credits she already owns all of these songs but will still buy the soundtrack. It’s that catchy.
Leitch has some fun exploiting the time and place to take us all back to 1989. British MI6 agent David Percival (James McAvoy, Split) exchanges luxury goods for information in the East holding court in the club-kid scene. Jack Daniels, and especially Jordache jeans, are coveted black market merchandise. Yet, more than props and fashion, you will hear 1989 more than you will see it. The soundtrack is wall to wall ‘80s new wave. As soon as I caught on to what Leitch was doing with the music, I only had to count the seconds until “99 Luftballons” made an appearance. They’re all here, “Der Kommissar”, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and so on. My friend mentioned during the credits she already owns all of these songs but will still buy the soundtrack. It’s that catchy.
I would have guessed wrong if I heard the soundtrack first and then had to posit what the film looked like. It’s dark. When there is light, it is usually red or blue neon, more for atmosphere than visual help. Apparently, nothing much happened during the daylight hours in Berlin and when it did, everything was washed out and gray. The lighting adds a thick film noir layer on top of the spy tricks and episodic physical mayhem. Director of Photography Jonathan Sela’s (A Good Day to Die Hard) camera keeps us off balance a bit. When one couldn’t trust anybody because of the fluid power dynamics and uncertain future, we can’t truly trust the camera either. The camera swirls in a circle not trying to make us dizzy, but not setting a foundation either. Our hero, and maybe unreliable narrator, super-agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron, The Fate of the Furious), is unfamiliar with Berlin and a couple dozen people try and kill her as soon as she emerges from the airport. We would probably feel loopy as well.
MI6 sent Lorraine to Berlin to find out who killed a deep undercover agent and to recover the mother of all intelligence gems, a complete list of all covert agents including the Allies and the Soviets. I don’t think it is ever explained how this list was compiled and why an East German Stasi officer, codename Spyglass (Eddie Marsan, Concussion), has it. However he created it or came into possession of it; I have no idea. Atomic Blonde’s most glaring hindrance is its overly complex plot. If it makes sense in the source material, it does not translate into the screenplay.
The plot and who has the list is all window dressing. Leitch is more interested in the fighting and next-level stunt work and he has the resumé to prepare him for the challenge. Leitch got his start in the Hollywood stunt world and his choreography for the Matrix trilogy caps an impressive list. He also co-directed the first John Wick, a film already attaining canonical status in the action genre due to its over-the-top wizardry. Theron takes the fighting seriously using mostly her fists and legs to overpower East German police, various mercenaries, and random hitmen. Sure, a handy hose or ring of keys are convenient situational weapons, but pistols and knives are only mechanisms of last resort.
Leitch opts for realism in his battle royales. When someone gets punched, they get hurt. Bruises appear. Knives result in stab wounds and bullets are lethal. We are more than familiar with the type of violence where the hero takes one to the gut and shrugs off the wound by pulling his jacket tighter and running with more of a hunched-over stoop. Nobody runs after being shot here. A climactic scene shuts off the tunes and turns up the grunts, screaming, and knuckle slams of one of the most intense fight scenes ever filmed. The less attuned will extol the brutality of it all, but the rest of us admire the artistry.
It’s not all sour and savage. Leitch stages a fight scene in backlit silhouette reminiscent of Tarantino’s The Bride in Kill Bill vol. 1. McAvoy is a drunken puzzle piece of a character, and perhaps pandering to his audience, Leitch throws in a lesbian sex scene that doesn’t need to be there, but the genre makes room for it. Even Kurt Johnstad’s script has some fun with cheeky one-liners like, “It’s like walking a tightrope or playing the bagpipes; you can either do it or you can’t.” Lorraine isn’t the most original of super-spies, Angelina Jolie from Salt would certainly test her mettle. But, oh, the 1989ness of it all. Budapest stands in for Berlin because that latter city’s drastic renovation means only more preserved Danube capitals resemble what it used to look like. The script builds in current event interludes updating us on how close we are to the big Checkpoint Charlie opening, a clever way to mark time, but all the reminiscing of times gone by vacates our minds when the next vat of blood splatter douses the camera.
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