Atomic Blonde

Atomic Blonde

Without Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde would be nothing more than a clever genre exercise; she makes it something worth talking about. The actress gives emotion to the steely behavior of British spy Lorraine Broughton as she attempts to retrieve a list of undercover operatives and uncover a double agent working in West Germany on behalf of the British. It’s unclear what Lorraine wants most of the time because she’s hiding behind an icy James Bond-like exterior that’s only enhanced by silver-grey camera filters, pulsating blue lights, and vodka on the rocks.

Theron is commanding here her take no bull body language and calculating stare give her character intelligence that assures us she knows what she’s doing but mostly she keeps the movie grounded. Whenever Atomic Blonde threatens to become a smarter than thou, hyper convoluted slog (which is often), Theron pulls it back down to Earth with a simple gesture or expression. She also convinces me that Lorraine is not just another James Bond clone, more “masculine” in her approach and style than 007 himself ever was or could be. You see this movie because it’s directed by one of John Wick’s co-directors; you should see it for Theron.

She also makes you want to read into a movie whose amped-up ’80s soundtrack everything from Nena’s “99 Luftballons” to New Order’s “Blue Monday” tells you right away that Atomic Blonde isn’t going for realism. The story takes place during the first week of November 1989, mere days before the fall of the Berlin Wall; historically speaking, we all know how it ends.

All that really matters here is Lorraine’s spy work and its consequences for both herself and those around her. In order to get things done, she must put human connections aside in each situation so that she may survive (primarily) and save the lives of her fellow agents. So she treats every situation tactically rather than emotionally.

Lorraine does have a personal connection to the spy whose death and betrayal is ultimately responsible for her trip to Berlin, though thankfully we only hear about this relationship once during a significant early in the film flashback. This dream/flashback suggests that there is a personal dimension to Lorraine’s quest, but Atomic Blonde wisely chooses not to foreground it.

Chilliness is Lorraine’s baseline, a foundational state of being that seems necessary for her at this point in time given how frequently everyone around her tries to proposition and/or take advantage of her; as a woman, she must be on-guard 24/7.

Every step along the way, people openly deceive her or are theoretically on her side but might as well be out to get her: first a group of Stasi officers pose as contacts and ambush her; then British spy David Percival (James McAvoy), who’s disillusioned by his low status on the espionage totem pole and doesn’t seem all that invested in helping British informant Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) flee Berlin; French spy Delphine (Sofia Boutella), who could be a love interest but initially reads as untrustworthy since she employs the same used car salesman “trust me” tactics as Lorraine’s counterparts (the first time they meet, Delphine offers to “rescue” Lorraine).

The fact that Lorraine’s backstory is limited to a single dream sequence is significant. It is true that her story is told through a series of flashbacks with three antagonistic interrogators: Eric Gray (Toby Jones), Lorraine’s superior officer; Emmet Kurzfeld (John Goodman), a dickish CIA chief; and the mysterious Chief “C” (James Faulkner), an MI6 figurehead watching Lorraine tell her tale from behind a two way mirror.

But as she points out, these guys aren’t her “superiors.” For the most part, we learn who Lorraine is through action and steely eyed glares. The film’s creators trusting viewers enough to downplay hackneyed origin-story psychology should hopefully make viewers more forgiving of blocky expository dialogue exchanges, smart-ass Machiavelli quotations, and an overwritten plot.

Director David Leitch’s adaptation of Antony Johnston and Sam Hart’s graphic novel Atomic Blonde serves the viewer with a lot of information about Lorraine through visuals alone, says Katie Walsh in her review for the Los Angeles Times. The protagonist states that she’s cool and is only making connections to get ahead, but she’s actually a mix of fire and ice: Leitch puts this across with red and blue light.

The ice bath Theron emerges from in her first scene is lit blue, while the lighter that is offered to her at a bar in one of the film’s most indelible images lights her face up red. Blue is the persona that Lorraine presents to the world; red light cuts through the character’s facade and reveals her interior. When Lorraine makes contact with Delfine, her blue-lit face is undercut with flashes of fiery red light that accent Theron’s cheekbones. When Delfine and Lorraine retire to Lorraine’s bedroom, the sheets are the same cerulean hue as the light on their bodies.

The use of pop culture references does some of this heavy lifting, too, connecting not only with Lorraine’s personality but with the historical landscape through which she travels. “Blue Monday” plays during a table-setting introductory scene, solidifying the notion of Lorraine as ice queen and subtly reminding us that espionage is Lorraine’s job and she’s about to start a new assignment.

The film’s main action kicks off to the tune of David Bowie’s “Cat People,” a song that begins with a verse by Iggy Pop (one of Bowie’s famous collaborators during his Berlin years), whose main refrain is “It’s been so long ” More ideas are teased in a fight scene where Lorraine tracks a group of killers into a movie theater showing “Stalker,” Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 science fiction drama, then sneaks into the area behind the screen and is ultimately kicked through it.

“Stalker” is set in “the Zone,” an Edenic oasis where wishes are granted by discarded alien artifacts; to Lorraine and Percival, Berlin is their own personal version of the Zone, a Wild West-style frontier where anything goes and everything can kill you.

This, ultimately, is why it matters that Theron plays a role that under most other circumstances, would have been given to a lesser male star. Her intensity during the film’s action scenes a mix of ostentatiously choreographed “The Raid”-style brutality and Paul Greengrass style hand held camerawork really convinces you that she is the best person for the job.

And while the film doesn’t ultimately say anything more cutting than “sometimes we role play in order to remind ourselves what we stand for,” Theron does ground the film whenever its hard boiled heroine threatens to get bogged down by superficial allusions and armchair philosophizing.

The film’s creators do exploit her gender in ways that they wouldn’t for a man (a male lead wouldn’t be allowed to have a same sex relationship in a movie made at this budget level). But you can’t help but be awed as Theron’s Lorraine knowingly traipses into a minefield of impending double and triple crosses, and comes out looking as poised as royalty. Atomic Blonde wouldn’t be insightful without Charlize Theron; it’d only be clever

The actor does a very good job at giving depth of feeling to the extremely formal conduct of the main character, the British spy Lorraine Broughton, as she tries to recover a much desired list of secret service agents and expose a British traitor in West Germany. What Lorraine actually wants is mostly kept under wraps as she hides behind an icy James Bond-style front accentuated by silver-grey camera filters, throbbing blue lights and her drink of choice, vodka on the rocks.

Theron’s performance is nothing short of commanding. Her no-nonsense body language and piercing gaze lend intelligence to her character and prove that she means business. Whenever the film threatens to get too smart for its own good or overly complicated with plot twists, Theron brings it back down to earth. She also makes you believe that her character isn’t just another James Bond clone. You may watch “Atomic Blonde” because it’s from the co-director of “John Wick,” but you should see it for Theron.

Theron also makes you want to interrogate a film whose amped-up ’80s soundtrack everything from Nena’s “99 Luftaballons” to New Order’s “Blue Monday” announces “Atomic Blonde” as an act of self-conscious role-play. The story takes place during the first week of November 1989, days before the Berlin Wall fell. Historically speaking, we know how the story ends. But what matters here is not whodunit so much as who works for whom and why they do it now? To gain any ground whatsoever, Lorraine has had to enter every situation coldly aware that (primarily) people will try to kill her if they find out who she really is.

Lorraine has personal ties to the spy whose death and betrayal lands her in Berlin though mercifully these ties are only mentioned once in passing during one of several flashbacks. That dream/flashback suggests a personal dimension to Lorraine’s mission that is mercifully never foregrounded. The chilliness of Lorraine’s status quo a foundational state of being that is all but confirmed by every encounter she has is compounded by her gender: As a woman, she knows better than to let down her guard because every situation requires that she be ready for someone to try and sleep with her or otherwise take advantage of her.

At each stage, people openly deceive Lorraine or are theoretically on her side but seem as if they’re out to get her; first she’s attacked by a group of Stasi officers who pose as her contacts, then she meets British spy David Percival (James McAvoy), an agent who’s clearly disillusioned with his low status on the espionage totem pole and doesn’t seem too interested in helping a British informant known only as Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) get out of Berlin alive, at which point all bets are off. A French spy named Delphine (Sofia Boutella), who may or may not become Lorraine’s lover depending on how trustworthy she proves to be, challenges Lorraine in much the same way as any other used car salesman; when they first meet, Delphine offers to “rescue” Lorraine.

Nonetheless, the fact that her life story exists exclusively within one dream sequence speaks volumes. Indeed, her history is recounted in a series of flashbacks to three interrogators who are also adversaries: Eric Gray (Toby Jones), Lorraine’s commanding officer; Emmet Kurzfeld (John Goodman), a CIA chief with a chip on his shoulder; and Chief “C” (James Faulkner), an MI6 figurehead who watches Lorraine tell her tale from behind a two-way mirror. But they’re not as she points out her “superiors.”

For the most part, what Lorraine does tells us everything we need to know about her. Action and steely-eyed glares go further than words ever could. Hopefully, trusting viewers enough to downplay hackneyed origin-story psychology will make them forgive blocky expository dialogue exchanges, smart-ass Machiavelli quotations and an overwritten plot or two on the film’s part.

Having been converted by screenwriter Kurt Johnstad and director David Leitch (the co-director of the “John Wick” movies), from a comic book written by Antony Johnston and illustrated by Sam Hart, “Atomic Blonde” is one of those films that tells you everything about a character without saying anything at all. The heroines says in no uncertain terms that she’s cool but only makes connections to get ahead however she’s more fire than ice: red and blue light suggest as much, anyway.

Theron emerges from an ice bath in her first scene, lit almost entirely blue save for a thin strip of white light along the tub’s edge; later on, someone offers her a lighter at a bar, and for just a second, her face goes red. Blue is the persona that Lorraine presents to the world; red light cuts through the character’s facade and reveals her interior. When Lorraine makes contact with Delfine (Sofia Boutella), her blue-lit face is undercut with flashes of fiery red light that accent Theron’s cheekbones. When Delfine and Lorraine retire to Lorraine’s bedroom, the sheets are the same cerulean hue as the light on their bodies.

Pop culture references do some of the heavy lifting here, too, connecting not only with Lorraine’s personality but with the historical landscape through which she travels. “Blue Monday” plays during a table-setting introductory scene; later on we hear David Bowie’s “Cat People” a song that begins with a verse by Iggy Pop (“It’s been so long”); still later we get into a fight scene where Lorraine tracks a group of killers into an arthouse cinema showing “Stalker,” Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 science fiction drama set in “the Zone,” an Edenic oasis where wishes are granted by discarded alien artifacts; to Lorraine and Percival, Berlin is their own personal version of the Zone, a Wild West-style frontier where anything goes and everything can kill you.

This is why it matters that Charlize Theron or rather, an action star who looks like Charlize Theron but doesn’t actually exist plays the lead role in “Atomic Blonde.” Her intensity during this film’s fight scenes which are ostentatiously well-choreographed and often staged to look like they were shot in long takes, though there are hidden cuts everywhere recalls what made her so compelling as Furiosa in “Mad Max Fury Road”: They’re cut from the same brutal cloth.

(Theron’s work here suggests a more confrontational Paul Greengrass heroine.) But while this movie doesn’t ultimately say anything more cutting than “sometimes we role-play in order to remind ourselves what we stand for,” Theron does ground the film whenever its hard-boiled hero threatens to get weighed down by allusions too far outside its reach.

The creator is knowingly exploiting Theron’s gender here in ways that they wouldn’t for a man (the double- and triple-crosses may be relentless, but Lorraine never stops being able to see through people). Still, you can’t help but be awed as Lorraine knowingly traipses into a minefield of impending double and triple crosses, and comes out looking as poised as royalty.

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