This week's Cinema Sunday takes a look at an action film based on a graphic novel. "Graphic novel" is a pretentious word for "comic book" that you can charge more money for.
The graphic novel in question is called "The Coldest City" published in 2012 and the movie is Atomic Blonde from 2017.
Here's the wind up: November 1989, mere days before the fall of the the Berlin Wall. KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin kills MI6 agent James Gascoigne in order to steal The List, a microfilm document concealed in Gascoigne's wristwatch that contains the names of every intelligence agent (on both sides) active in Berlin.
Here's the pitch: Lorraine Broughton, a top level MI6 spy, wades into this mess to sort it all out, no matter how much blood she needs to shed.
Atomic Blonde jumps back and forth in time between Broughton's mission in Berlin and her subsequent debriefing by MI6 and the CIA.
Atomic Blonde perfectly captures the aesthetic of a 1980s thriller, from the perpetual grey overcast that hangs over Soviet controlled East Berlin to the garish neon of Berlin's club scene to the dark blue limned sex scenes.
Like James Bond, Broughton seduces a source for information. And also like James Bond, the person Broughton seduces is also a hot babe.
Lorraine Broughton makes for an interesting character to have at the center of this narrative. She is morally ambiguous, unequivocally ruthless. Her loyalties are not always clear. Ostensibly she is a British agent but she holds the chain of command in British intelligence with contempt. Is she a double agent, secretly working for the very Russians who are hell bent on killing her? Is she a triple agent, acting for a third party? The ambiguity of Lorraine's loyalties remain in question until the final scene.
Charlize Theron plays Lorraine Broughton with a dark sinister undertone, keeping her in check so we're never quite sure on what side of this counter intelligence equation she falls. Or if she even cares. Within days, the Berlin Wall will be knocked down, a domino falling that will lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Lorraine Broughton knows what is coming and knows this deadly game of spy vs. spy is devoid of meaning.
Really, the whys and wherefores of the plot are mere McGuffins; the real draw for Atomic Blonde is watching the ultimate action girl kick all sorts of ass.
Broughton gets into some seriously intense, brutal fights and has the scars to show for them. No Hollywood hair and make up magic at work here. Broughton gets punched in the face; in the next scene, she's still sporting the bruise.
Sometimes female action stars experience little more than a cut lip or a hair out of place. Not in Atomic Blonde. Broughton is an expert fighter but these fights exert a physical toll. Frequently bruised, bloodied and scarred, she staggers away from these battles victorious but tired and sore.
I am frequently astonished at the limits Charlize Theron and her stunt doubles push in Lorraine Broughton's fight scenes, pushing a level of exertion and brutality that would give most male action stars pause.
To get ready for Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron worked with eight personal trainers, who "basically made me puke every single day". During this training, Theron cracked her teeth and had to get them fixed in surgery. She also bruised a rib during her training.
Theron's training for the movie overlapped with Keanu Reeves' training for John Wick: Chapter 2. The two developed a competitive relationship, which included sparring together.
Tough stuff.
Atomic Blonde is almost over the top, too invested in it's 1980s aesthetic and it's bloody, bone cracking ballet of violence. But it is a fascinating film to watch. While the story takes a back seat to the look of the film, the narrative onion that keeps getting unpeeled over the course of the movie is engaging.
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