Blonde tips over the edge

ATOMIC Blonde looks incredible and is a terrific adrenalin-laced ride, but damn, is that plotting ugly.

The unnecessarily dense, convoluted storyline is the biggest flaw in what is otherwise an excellent film, a throwback to another time and another generation of spy movie.

The story is set in late 1989, as the Cold War is drawing to an uneasy end and pressure is mounting to have the Berlin Wall torn down.

In the midst of all this political tension, a British MI6 agent has acquired a vital and potentially dangerous piece of intelligence: a list containing the identities of every allied agent in the world, including the identity of a double agent known only as Satchel.

Of course both sides want it, so when the MI6 agent is assassinated by a KGB agent in the streets of Berlin, the British send another top agent, Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) to retrieve it, with the help of local contact David Pervical (James McAvoy).

Further complicating matters, they must also smuggle a Communist defector out of East Berlin and into the West.

MARTAIN

Easily the most striking feature of this movie is its visual style, which is evocative of both the graphic novel the movie is based on, as well as the era in which the story is set. Judiciously placed splashes of colour across a mostly washed-out palette give emphasis where it is needed and give it a very ’80s look and feel, while the framing and camera movement highlight the action on screen perfectly.

There is something almost exploitative about the style of the film as well, like something from a bygone era of pulpy spy flicks: the women certainly seem to spend a lot of time in their underwear.

But this, too, is in keeping with the film’s established style and setting, that sleazy, grim, bohemian image of 1980s Berlin, the leather jacketed sternness of it and the punk counterculture scene.

The fight sequences are excellent, no doubt the proud trademark of director David Leitch, a career stuntman and assistant director who often directs action sequences for other people’s movies. The fight scenes are stark, rarely accompanied by any music, making them look raw, brutal and unglamorous, which is very effective.

And Theron trained hard in order to be able to do most of her own stunts, so with only a few exceptions that’s really her you’re watching.

She plays an excellent character as well. Broughton never raises her voice above a breathy half-whisper, which is wonderful. That speech pattern exudes the total confidence of someone who doesn’t need to shout to be heard. Sharp, cold, alert, yet at times human and vulnerable, Theron makes the British spy something fully textured and real.

McAvoy is also great fun as the sleazy and morally bankrupt MI6 agent who has “gone feral” in East Berlin.

But while the cast and aesthetic might be excellent, the story is a bit problematic.

I’m still not quite sure I get it, to be quite honest. I mean, the final twist purports to reveal all and tie the rest of the story together, but, well, it only raises a lot more questions, really.

The bulk of the story’s intrigue centres on trying to figure out who Satchel really is, and there are a lot of red herrings and hints tossed into the mix, so it is hard to tell which is which. And in this regard, it is a lot of fun: it is a spy movie, after all, so it wouldn’t be complete without luring the audience into a game of doing their own mystery-solving work.

But there are just so many twists, fake-outs, clues and false leads that in the end the whole thing feels like it has twisted back inside itself and become almost incomprehensible.

The more I sit and think back over it, I gradually become more comfortable that it probably DOES all work out, but geez I’ve had to work on it.

Maybe Atomic Blonde would be more clear on a second viewing, knowing the twists in advance and seeing how it looks. But you shouldn’t have to watch a movie twice just so it makes sense. This one actually gets more out of focus the harder you concentrate on it.

As good as the final “AHA!” is, the big picture still doesn’t quite look right when you think back over it.

Or maybe I’m just not smart enough. That’s always a possibility.

Perhaps the core of it lies in a line of dialogue from the film, when Percival says: “Truth, lies, people like us, we can’t tell the difference”. Maybe that’s exactly the point: by the end of the movie, maybe we’re not meant to be completely sure about who was who and what they did.

But that’s a bit of a disappointing end to a mystery, isn’t it?

I really wanted to like Atomic Blonde, and I guess mostly I did. It is brisk, gritty, sexy, action-packed, stylish, pacy and gripping and it certainly had me on the hook the whole time. And Theron is an awesome action hero. But by the time the credits rolled, I just wasn’t sure if the pay-off was worth it.

See what you think.

is now showing at the State Cinema, Village Cinemas and Cmax, rated MA15

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