THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME
US, 2018, 117 minutes, Colour.
Mila Kunis, Kate Mac Kinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughen, Gillian Anderson, Jane Curtin, Paul Reiser.
Directed by Susanna Fogel.
No mistaking the direction in which this espionage adventure will go. The keywords are spoof and mayhem. And, in fact, there is plenty of both and increasingly veering towards over the top.
It was James Bond who was “The Spy who Loved Me�. Actually, there is an English agent in this film although he is played by Scots Sam Heughen, a regular in the television series, Outlander. There is also an American kind of James Bond equivalent, played by Justin Theroux. He is the spy who does the actual dumping. The important word, of course, in the title is “Me�.
It doesn’t sound particularly grammatical to ask “who is Me?�. But, that is the question. In fact, she is a regular American woman, in her 30s, Audrey, played by Mila Kunis. She is an attractive character, tends to put herself down a bit, is, obviously, more than a bit put out to find that she has been dumped but even more put out to find that the man who dumped her is a spy.
But, she does have a best friend who is the exact opposite of her, Morgan, played by Kate Mac Kinnon. Kate Mac Kinnon has excelled on Saturday Night Live with many impersonations, madcap satire and spoof, was one of the new Ghostbusters, and takes every opportunity here to excel even more. While she is outspoken, zany in her attitudes towards life, even finishing up performing on the trapeze with high wire acts at an arty reception.
When the dumping spy is shot, he asks Audrey to get his important sports trophy and to take it immediately to Vienna where she will find a contact at a restaurant. What else are the girls to do but immediately book a flight, get to Austria, go to the hotel, misinterpret contact and so begin a series of adventures that will remind audiences of the more serious shows while sending them up in terms of danger, escapes, drawing on desperate resources, anything available or improvising, to fend off danger.
And, there are some travels into the bargain, careering around Europe, from Vienna to Amsterdam and tourist spots in between.
As with all spoofs, some audiences will find a particular episode extraordinarily funny while the person sitting next to them might be offering a mild smile. It is that kind of screenplay, but one rushing from one episode and send up to the next, audiences identifying with Audrey, wondering what Morgan is going to do – and, what Gillian Anderson is doing as the controller at MI 6 and whether the blonde protector is the hero or the traitor.
And that, probably, is enough for a smiling or laughing-out-loud night out.
