Atomic Blonde: Nothing new in the East
Cold war, in the middle of summer. Admittedly, summer isn't that warm any more. All the more reason to spend an hour and a half at the cinema without a guilty conscience. The occasion is "Atomic Blonde", a spy thriller starring Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent. So let's find out just how cold the Cold War really still is in Berlin in 1989.
I think the title is pretty stupid. That was my first thought when I heard about Charlize Theron's new film "Atomic Blonde". However, her performance as Imperator Furiosa in "Mad Max: Fury Road" more than thrilled me. I also thought she was great as the "psychotic prom-queen bitch" in "Young Adult". And after all, a title doesn't make a film. So I decided to give the atomic blonde a chance. After all, stories about women who can fight and kiss other women are unfortunately still far too rare.
Hollywood seems to be slowly getting used to the idea that women can also punch. One of these women is Charlize Theron. She is already being touted as the next Bond by fellow actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Black Hat). I'm clearly in favour of Idris Elba as 007, but that's just a side note. Theron is already an agent in "Atomic Blonde", so who knows what the future holds. The film is an adaptation of the graphic novel "The Coldest City" and is set in Berlin, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when an MI6 agent is murdered. A list is stolen in the process. It's like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction: everyone wants it, but no one knows exactly what it contains.
The only thing that is clear is that the list can expose a whole series of double agents. Enter Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton, another MI6 agent and taciturn protagonist. The titular atomic blonde. Her mission: to retrieve the list and stir up the KGB.
John le Carré meets Stranger Things
In purely aesthetic terms, the film with its 1980s flair is reminiscent of the Netflix series "Stranger Things". However, when Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) grows up, she doesn't want to become Lorraine, but rather Imperator Furiosa. The film music also revives the era of shoulder pads and perms and is great fun. From The Clash and Queen to David Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees, everything is included.
The prerequisites are therefore promising. But what gets in the way of the film is its plot. The longer the plot meanders along, the more I lost the thread and my patience with it. The story is told in flashbacks, which only adds to the general confusion. The only continuity is Lorrain's hair colour. Her mission changes every 15 minutes or so. When it becomes clear that a mole is torpedoing her mission, we are back to the good old spy film after all. John le Carré sends his regards. Broughton continues to brutally fight her way through Berlin and meets French agent Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), with whom she begins an affair. Unfortunately, this seems a bit like the fever dream of a 13-year-old. True to the motto "When two kiss, the third is happy."
Because the protagonist has no previous history or recognisable motivation, she arouses little sympathy or interest. She shares this fate with the other characters. As a result, the complicated plot is not really carried by the fleshless characters.
Killer Queen Lorraine
What the film lacks in comprehensible plot and developed characters, it makes up for with its fight scenes. These seem all the more impressive when you know that Charlize Theron performs the majority of her stunts herself. When she is fighting her way up a staircase for seven minutes, everything else becomes secondary. Director David Leitch (John Wick) has clearly focussed on the various physical confrontations. These scenes are more well thought out and more exciting than the rest of the story. Interestingly, these are also the moments where something like Lorraine's character is most visible. When she relaxes her battered body in a bathtub full of ice and you can see the strain of her battles. This makes it clear that, despite her aloofness and her strength, she is a human being.
My conclusion is that "Atomic Blonde" is mainly a testament to Charlize Theron's impressive martial arts skills. If you're in the mood for agent action, this is the film for you. If that's not enough for you, you can look forward to Taraji P. Henson's "Proud Mary". The film about the hitwoman Mary will be released in cinemas next year and the trailer at least looks promising.
We can only hope that Hollywood will focus more on interesting female characters who kick the arse of anyone who gets in their way in the future. <p
As an author and passionate reader, a large part of my time belongs to the world of words. I like to travel and discover the world, always with a book in my luggage. Languages of all kinds inspire me, almost as much as the prospect of the next coffee.