John Wick co-director David Leitch, also a former stuntman and coordinator, brings his brand of hard-boiled action to 1989 Berlin just days before the fall of the Wall with Charlize Theron (also a producer) starring as one kick-ass MI6 British agent in the exhilarating but incomprehensible Atomic Blonde. Based on Antony Johnston's graphic novel, The Coldest City, the film is a retro-style remix of contemporary action films with plenty of flash to spare.
As Lorraine Broughton, Theron is icy-cool, revelling in a physical role that exploits all her skills and best assets. Leitch and screenwriter Kurt Johnstad make the overly confusing spectacle almost a ratcheted-up female-driven mashup of campier James Bond stories of the past with its grittier, more recent fare in terms of filmmaking and action.
The mostly European cast makes the ridiculous yet violent affair all the more entertaining. A boisterous James McAvoy hams it up, relishing his broad performance as the loose cannon Berlin station chief. Sofia Boutella is sexy, cool, but somewhat superfluous as a rival French agent in over her head. Leitch further populates his alternate, retro-cool 1989 Berlin with fine character actors like John Goodman, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan and Til Schweiger as her various handlers and aids.
All the vapid characters, gratuitous nudity, in-your-face 1980s references, and on-the-nose diegetic soundtrack are worth it for the all-timer, single-take action scene midway through that's both mesmerizing and horrifying in its brutal execution of hand-to-hand violence. There's so much going on with the usual rogue agents, black market deals, interagency squabbling, and a story-within-a-story framework that makes the non-action scenes feel incredibly overcomplicated. Never mind the multitude of double and even triple crosses.
The balance of messy yet intriguing Cold War-era allegiances and over-the-top, brutal violence doesn't quite mesh throughout, but Leitch's style almost overcomes the lack of substance. Cinematographer Jonathan Sela makes East and West Berlin look at once period-appropriately glamorous and seedy.
Full of neon, Leitch's brand of stylish action and loud filmmaking mostly works, despite a needlessly complex narrative structure that mocks its own ultra-convoluted plot. Theron is a perfect vessel, combining talent with pure sex appeal, making Atomic Blonde a fun and slick cinematic ride. It is beautiful nonsense.
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