'Atomic Blonde' Is Imperfect, but Succeeds in Being a Cerebral, Stylish Spy Thriller

Atomic Blonde was marketed as if it was going to be a female John Wick movie.  Though there are indeed a couple of cool fight scenes, it’s not anything like the fun, butt-kicking action fest that the John Wick movies are known for.  Rather, it’s more of an old-school espionage thriller involving undercover work, assassinations, seductions, double crosses, and securing critical secrets.

The film is set near the end of Cold War, days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and is centered on Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), an elite MI6 agent who is as deadly as she is alluring.  In her latest assignment, she’s tasked to work with eccentric Berlin station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) in order to investigate the death of a fellow MI6 agent as well as to recover a vital “List”, which will expose a high-ranking double agent in their midst, that his killer took from him.  Meanwhile, she also has to deal with rival KGB agents, a Stasi defector (Eddie Marsan) who has memorized the contents of the List, and a French agent (Sofia Boutella) who is shadowing her.

I find the plot generally intriguing and cerebral.  However, it gets tedious and untidy sometimes.  There are even moments that actually don’t make sense.  But the narrative has been able to overcome these bumps, mainly due to the strong performances from the cast and the endearingly stylish atmosphere brought by its cinematography, production value, and soundtrack.

I extremely liked Charlize Theron’s Lorraine Broughton.  I had never been this enamored with a female movie spook since Angelina Jolie’s Evelyn Salt (of 2010’s Salt).  She has beauty, brains, and brawn – the perfect badass femme fatale.  But what additionally appealed to me about her character is that, despite being understandably portrayed as extra-tough for storytelling purposes (in real life, women can’t really beat up multiple male opponents; it’s physically impossible), she’s not uber-competent like Black Widow.  She gets hit; she gets hurt.  And because of this sense of vulnerability, her character is balanced by a gritty, grounded charm – making her more interesting.

Overall, Atomic Blonde is quite enjoyable.  It’s not perfect, but I think it has mostly succeeded in what it has set off to do – a solid piece of spy fiction.