Review: Atomic Blonde doesn’t always make sense but Charlize Theron makes a big impact
REVIEW: Atomic Blonde works only due to the feminine force and fury of a cool, cruel performance from Charlize Theron.
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ATOMIC BLONDE (MA15+)
Rating: three and a half stars (3.5 out of 5)
Director: David Leitch (John Wick)
Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones.
A cool Charlize only has ice for you
Throughout the style-conscious, substance-free action pic Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron brilliantly blurs the line that separates the alluring from the alarming.
Though the movie is never up to much — a confusing, convoluted story prohibits any sustained immersion by viewers — Theron remains all over the need to keep energy levels pulsing as intensely as they can.
It is the late 1980s, and with the Berlin Wall about to crumble, British MI6 super-spy Lorraine Broughton (Theron) must retrieve a list that will save the lives of many double agents that were active during the Cold War.
The imminent removal of what remains of the Iron Curtain has turned the European espionage scene upside down. Nobody is entirely sure whose side they are supposed to be on anymore.
The traditional rules of engagement that once governed the never-ending fight for superior intelligence have been erased. It is every man and woman for themselves.
Even Lorraine’s closely ally as she works through her dangerous assignment is not someone to be trusted.
MI6’s Berlin station chief David Percival (James McAvoy, repeating a few of the mad mood swings he used to such great effect in Split) is still very much on the payroll of the good guys, but he is always open for business on the dark side should the right offer be made.
As for the ulterior motives of French covert operative Delphine Lassalle (Sofia Boutella), your guess is as good as anyone’s. Particularly once she and Lorraine take their relation from undercover to under the covers.
There is also some murky mixed-business sub-plottery involving a mysterious mastermind-cum-informant codenamed Satchel, a blustery big kahuna from the CIA (John Goodman) who wants a look at the same list Lorraine is after, and a multitude of generically burly and surly Communist henchmen.
The only reason that latter mob are hanging around so prominently takes a long time to be explained, but does emphatically justify the strongest sequence on offer in Atomic Blonde.
The 20-minute set-piece where Lorraine must fight, kill and maim her way out of East Berlin by any means necessary is as kinetically exciting as action filmmaking will get in 2017.
While the finer points of Atomic Blond e’s story are impossible to follow, Theron deploys a cool combo of bewitching beauty, bone-breaking brawn and belittling eye contact that is impossible to resist.
Sure, her character casually lifts certain traits from the playbooks of Jason Bourne, John Wick and even James Bond. Nevertheless, the permafrosted composure Theron applies to her performance cannot be found elsewhere.