‘ATOMIC’ BOMBSHELL
Theron mesmerizes as double agent in Cold War thriller
Just as the world has learned to love Wonder Woman all over again, say hello to almost equally super-heroic Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron). Lorraine is an MI6 spy first appearing in Antony Johnston and Sam Hart’s 2012 graphic novel “The Coldest City.” The new film version is set in 1989 on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Young people in mohawks roam the streets of East Berlin, sometimes getting picked up, and in one case beaten to death, by a murderous representative of the fascist state.
The plot revolves around a debriefing being conducted by Chief C (James Faulkner), the head of MI6, and subordinate Eric Gray (always welcome Toby Jones) in London, along with their opposite number in the CIA, Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman). They want to know what happened after they sent Lorraine into East Berlin to find “the list” of double agents fleeing to the West that was hidden inside a watch worn by the late James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave), a fellow spook and former lover of Lorraine’s.
To retrieve the list, she must contact fellow MI6 operative David Percival (James McAvoy), who is no shining knight, but an undercover dealer of contraband and perhaps a shady, “feral” character. The list was provided to Gasciogne by a Stasi agent code-named Spyglass (Eddie Marsan), who is trying to get himself and his family to the West.
Having said all that, the “list” is this film’s MacGuffin (i.e., the thing that has no real meaning or significance, but sets all into motion). The best thing about “Atomic Blonde” is not the James Bond meets “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” mumbo-jumbo, most of it familiar, canned and frankly dull.
What is best about Atomic Blonde” is Theron herself, a magnificent, surprisingly athletic screen presence with a face the camera worships and who appears undraped much of the time in artfully angled shots. When she isn’t bathing in a tub full of ice cubes and draining a tumbler of iced Stoli, Lorraine is beating the stuffing — Jason Bourne- and James Bond-style — out of male opponents. Ladies, if a lug just treated you poorly, “Atomic Blonde” might be better than $10,000 worth of psychotherapy.
Directed by former stunt man and second unit helmer David Leitch, who proves that his success with “John Wick,” for which his co-director got sole directing credit, was no fluke, “Atomic Blonde” boasts fight scenes that are exciting, surprising and uncommonly real looking. In one sequence, Lorraine uses her keys as brass knuckles, leaving her enemy with a key ring dangling painfully and gruesomely from his cheek for half the fight. Theron speaks German and Russian in some scenes, just like polyglot Jason Bourne. But in most scenes it’s sufficient to show us an athletic prowess that makes her the action film equal at least of Matt Damon and Daniel Craig. Leitch salts most of the film’s action with tasty and not-so-tasty standards from the 1980s (“99 Luftballons” or “Der Kommissar,” anyone?).
Cinematographer Jonathan Sela (“John Wick”) does a fine job of evoking graphic novel imagery with his compositions (of course, he has Theron’s iconic face to work with). Because she is about half as tall as Theron, Sofia Boutella (“The Mummy”) is not quite right as Lorraine’s French fellow spy and love match Delphine Lasalle. Still, seeing Theron wearing a striped off-the-shoulder crocheted minidress after kicking some butt may be worth the proverbial price of admission.