Fun fact: Did you know Henry Cavill was one of the actors short-listed to play James Bond. However, what comes as a surprise is that his character, Napoleon Solo, a suave american spy in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was created in part by Ian Fleming, the creator of James bond himself. Joining him is also his KGB partner Ilya Kuryakin, played by Armie Hammer and their love-hate relationship mixed with political tension and Guy Ritchie's direction makes this spy flick a very enjoyable experience indeed.
U.N.C.L.E. introduces our protagonists in a true Guy Ritchie fashion with a nice kinetic car chase innight-time East Berlin in 1963 Cold War and establishes their relationship in great exposition/flashback scenes that are inter-cut in the chase scene. They are trying to fight over a car mechanic named Gaby(Alicia Vikander due to her 'familial ties' which is of interest to each of their countries. Though when the KGB and CIA reluctantly join together,, Solo and Kuryakin must put aside their differences and work with Gaby to infiltrate the rich Vinciguerra family to retrieve designs for a nuclear bomb.
I won't lie, at this point I am pretty tired of plots regarding nuclear bombs. and this story doesn't change my stand as of now. But you don't come to see a Guy Ritchie movie for a very deep and introspective story. The movie will take you to a trip through Europe, exotic villain islands and a shady shipping yard. However, the story definitely starts strong with a great set-up, and is maintained with good fast action as you should expect from a Guy Ritchie movie.
Guy Ritchie's direction is bold in the sense that there is always a big stamp of his style in each film, especially in this. And the story greatly benefits from his fast-paced and stylistic camera-work with unusual angles here and there. It is quite apparent as the film progresses that it is paying some kind of homage to the spy thrillers of the 1960's and it makes sense since the source material is a show from the 1960's (cough* Mission Impossible). Throughout the movie, you will see sprinkles of humour, and they are good jokes to be found here even though some feel a bit forced sometimes, nonetheless it got a few chuckles out of me. The action is stylised and fast sometimes in excess other times balanced, all times enjoyable.
This is definitely a very character-driven experience and at the heart of it all lies the relationship between Cavill's Napoleon Solo and Hammer's Kuryakin as their allegiances to their respective countries makes them sworn enemies, and now have to work as partners. They're constantly trying ot outsmart and outfight each other but overtime learn to respect each other as agents and as distinct personalities almost jeopardizing their duty to their nation. The plot also juggles between the two well each of them as they play both supporting and hero roles relative to each other whenever the plot requires, with nice character moments for each. It also keeps the tension of KGB vs CIA right till the end which I loved and praise this movie for.They try to make a love interest out of Gaby for Kuryakin but it doesn't match their bromance, which is certainly a big reason you should watch this movie. Not many spy movies really have 2 protagaonists take centre stage in this way.
Special mention should also go to Elizabeth Debicki as Victoria Vinciguerra who pretty much is the main antagonist of the film. Firstly, she looks absolutely stunning and works so great as a villain as (quoting from the movie) a lethal combination of beauty, brains and ambition. Examples like Victoria show us that the spy genre can certainly benefit from more female villains who do take charge of the operations, are merciless and not just be sidelined as femme fatales. I was pretty disappointed that she didn't get enough moments in the movie.
Towards the end we are introduced to Agent Waverly (Hugh Grant) who is what you can say your typical British head-spy if you will. However, if you remember I had said that the source material was based on a 1960's T.V show. And naturally being 2015, everyone wants to make a franchise out of everything, we get a sequel bait (sort of) with agent Waverly building a 'team'. The thing is that the film introduces us to him way too late so we do not know enough of this guy considering the role he is supposed to play in the future. I would've liked him to be introduced in the beginning or at least somewhere early in the middle so we have a good idea of the character for later appearances.
Benefiting from great action, direction, performances all round and a killer soundtrack, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is certainly a movie that can be enjoyed as a decent spy-action film and can be taken with a pinch of nostalgia towards a more simpler time of suave spies and defusing nuclear bombs in a secret island hideout. However, if Warner Bros. does plan on making a sequel, in my opinion the story has to get more sophisticated.
and of course the one screenshot you will find in almost every review....
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| oh, .the bromance.... |
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