While George Michael sings his haunting “Father Figure” MI-6 Agent Lorraine Broughton, played by Charlize Theron, mercilessly beats the crap out of five or six KGB assassins with a kitchen sink hose and whatever she can grasp with her hands. She concludes by snapping the wrists of two towering henchmen with clean Aikido kotegaeshi technique.
I love George Michael. I love Charlize Theron more. Charlize is awesome in Director David Leitch’s “Atomic Blonde”. “Atomic Blonde” is awesome as well. Leitch, the co-director of “John Wick”, has an impeccable eye for high impact martial arts on screen. The fighting in “Atomic Blonde” is amazing, realistic, and brutal. It is among the best in movies.
I may be sexist here. I think the fighting seems so brutal because Theron is beaten and bloodied so viciously. But as Lorraine she powerfully dishes back her wrath in kind wreaking deadly punishment upon her enemies. Leitch had Theron train in mix martial arts and kickboxing for several months. She is so intense and holds her ground. Theron is fit, lean, and stands about 5′ 10″. In the movie, she is fighting men over 6 feet and weighing 100 pounds more than her.
Leitch has Theron’s Lorraine leverage immaculate technique, timing, and quickness in combat advantage. She is fighting bigger, stronger men, so she knows that she is going to have to take hits and keep fighting. Having trained in martial arts for 25 years and being small, I appreciate the fact that in fighting both sides suffer the consequences.
In the climatic fighting sequence as Lorraine helps save Spyglass, played by Eddie Marson, who holds the key to the deadly security breach, she endures devastating punches and kicks relying upon all her skill and grit in the electrifying continuous screenshot. The experience is mind-blowing. Theron as Lorraine is samurai: singular in focus and all heart. She fights with controlled rage and an eloquent sense of loss. Her performance rocks “Atomic Blonde”.
“Atomic Blonde” is set in 1989 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Kurt Johnstad wrote the screenplay based on the comic book by Antony Johnson and Sam Hart. Director Leitch captures the period with Lorraine’s sleek couture and the music by the likes of George Michael, David Bowie, and Queen. The music is my era and great. “Atomic Blonde” is perhaps the coolest movie of the year.
The movie opens as naked stunningly beautiful Theron as Lorraine emerges bruised and bloodied from the ice bath in her tub. Later she is interrogated by her MI-6 superior Eric, played with brilliant uselessness by Toby Jones, and CIA Head Emmett, played by strong reliable John Goodman. Apparently, they wish to know what happened to Lorraine’s mission that went unhinged.
Eric sent Lorraine to Berlin to retrieve the body of murdered Agent Gasciogne, played by Sam Hargrove. Gasciogne possessed the classified list of all MI-6 and CIA operatives that was stolen when he was murdered. The list is now up for highest bid. That list also revealed the identity of the Satchel, who is the traitorous double agent. Lorraine chooses not to disclose that Gasciogne was her lover. Her MI- 6 contact in Berlin to assist in her mission is David Percival, played with charismatic zeal by muscular James McAvoy. David knows about the list and he also knows mild-mannered Spyglass, unassuming Marson, who memorized the list and the identity of Satchel.
Upon her arrival in Berlin Lorraine literally disposes KGB assassins with her stilettos in a limo. Perhaps, she has been set up from the beginning? By Satchel? During her investigation into her lover’s murder, Lorraine becomes involved in the sensual tryst with beguiling French operative Delphine, played by seductive Sofia Boutella. Is theirs the genuine romantic diversion or a clumsy plot device? Maybe both. However, in a nice character reveal Delphine tells Lorraine that her eyes change “when you tell the truth”. Melancholy Lorraine admits, “and that could get me killed one day.”
We empathize with Theron’s Lorraine because of her touching sadness. Theron poignantly plays dispassionate and oh so cool, masking Lorraine’s profound suffering. Her curse is that the people she loves die violently for no good reason. In a sense, Theron’s is the existential hero fighting to define and discover purpose. At times the narrative plot of “Atomic Blonde” betrays the hero’s intentions in lacking some gravity or clarity. However, Theron’s courage and display of human frailty move and haunt. “Atomic Blonde” works, because we all wish for Theron as Lorraine to find that measure of justice she so deserves. And our hero also deserves her own measure of peace like we all do.
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Originally Published on IMDb
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