In the years of the Cold War a secret MI6 agent is sent to Berlin with two missions: to find out who murdered a yellow agent and recover the missing list of double agents names.
Can a woman step into James Bond's shoes? Duh, says Charlize Theron as she performs the cold-as-ice secret agent shtick backwards, and in red patent-leather stilettos, in the engaging spy-vs-spy thriller Atomic Blonde.
Playing the closest thing we have currently to a female Bond in Atomic Blonde, Theron delivers an electric performance that's brutal and sexy at the same time.
While the finer points of the story are impossible to follow, Theron deploys bewitching beauty, bone-breaking brawn and belittling eye contact that is impossible to resist.
Atomic Blonde doesn't reinvent the wheel and never really tries to. It occasionally gets tangled in its own web but it accomplishes what it set out to do.
You don't go to operas for dancing or ballets for singing, and you don't see Atomic Blonde for anything but a badass female protagonist crunching bones and pulping faces in gratifyingly long takes or remarkable simulations thereof.
Perhaps it's not surprising that [Leitch] winds up with something that feels like a tough-minded drama rejiggered into a hard-bodied action-adventure. But it is a bit disappointing. Still, there are consolations.
The logical companion piece to the summer hit Baby Driver, Atomic Blonde is another movie largely defined by its cool-as-ice characters, its action-packed set-pieces, and its awesome mix tape of classic tunes readily available for iTunes download.
