THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME
Bourne meets Bridesmaids…
Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon turn spooks.
‘MCKINNON’S OFF-KILTER CHARISMA IS THE STANDOUT ELEMENT HERE’
out now
While there’s no shortage of propulsive action set-pieces at the box office this summer, none pull off a more satisfying bait-andswitch than the adrenaline-pumping opening of The Spy Who Dumped Me. Justin Theroux’s CIA operative, suited and tense, is pursued through the streets of Lithuania by shadowy assailants who want the vital intelligence he’s carrying on a thumb drive.
So far, so Bourne – but Theroux’s Drew is in fact a footnote in this story, which soon pivots with effervescent ease to focus on his spurned girlfriend Audrey (Mila Kunis) and her ride-ordie best friend Morgan (a reliably mesmerising Kate McKinnon).
Having already been unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend – who she thought worked in radio – Audrey is soon also saddled with his life-threatening mission, which sends her and Morgan off on a high-stakes globe-trot with various gangsters, MI6 and law enforcement all hot on their tail. Both characters know they’re wildly unqualified for this; the movie very literally plucks them out of a romcom in LA and drops them into the middle of a spy narrative in Vienna, and this genre mishmash proves truly entertaining thanks to a sharply observed script and winning performances.
It’s no secret by this point that McKinnon is a firecracker of a comedian, and her irrepressible off-kilter charisma is by far the standout element here, with Kunis playing the nonetheless appealing straight woman. As the pair make their way around Europe in a delirious rush of car chases, narrow escapes and hand-to-hand combat situations, it’s Morgan’s alarming zeal for adventure that keeps things from becoming incoherent; so long as she’s on board, so are we.
And though Audrey’s breakup is the catalyst, it’s Morgan’s vulnerabilities that emerge in the most compelling and surprising ways. For all her bravado, she’s a misfit, and McKinnon excels at playing her charm alongside her profound social awkwardness. One of the film’s most emotionally smart moments comes when Drew – who we come to learn was not a particularly great guy even before the dumping – casually tells Morgan she’s “a little much”. It’s unexpectedly cutting, and gets at something profound about how men can undermine women.
SUPERSIZED SISTERHOOD
Writer-director Susanna Fogel’s last film was the little-seen but delightful Life Partners, a low-key comedy about two female best friends whose intensely close relationship changes when one stops being single. Despite now being on a blockbuster scale and a studio budget, Fogel brings the same level of detail and warmth to Audrey and Morgan’s bond, and it’s such a pure joy to see a well-developed female friendship at the centre of