Film Review - The Spy Who Dumped Me (15)

Abort! Abort mission! Go!

Sometimes, as I've said before, it pays dividends for the cinema-goer to keep his expectations low. Mine were genuinely modest this time around. Both leads had a track record in being funny, the trailer made me smile a few times and it seemed like I was in for a daft, entertaining romp. That's all I was asking. Sadly The Spy Who Dumped Me didn't even scale those moderate heights.

As per the film's title, there's a promising set-up. Mila Kunis plays Audrey, a Los Angeles girl coming to terms with a break-up, helped all the way by her BFF Morgan (Kate McKinnon). Then her ex crashes back into her life pursued by a clutch of assassins and the truth comes shockingly to light - Audrey had unwittingly been dating a guy up to his ears in global espionage. Without warning she and Morgan are plunged into that same world, trying to deliver a crucial whatsit into the right hands, while being pursued all across Europe by murderous assailants. And of course they're able to trust no one except each other.

It's the kind of premise I've been championing here at Filmic Forays. Two 'sisters' doin' it for themselves, the way Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox described in the song. Taking no crap from anyone else and covering each other's back, while at every turn being witty, irreverent and hilarious. Both these gals can be all of the above - see Kunis in the Bad Moms movies and McKinnon in numerous Saturday Night Live skits - and there are scattered moments of realised potential here. But it's largely a case of squandered opportunity in a film that's messy on several fronts.

It's tonally all over the shop for starters. The story is crammed with action sequences as brutal (and five times as freaking loud) as anything in last year's Atomic Blonde, while still trying to be a wacky screwball comedy. It's a massively jarring combination - one the movie might have survived, if only the screenplay had been funnier; Melissa McCarthy's Spy made the same tonal error, but got away with it by providing a regular stream of laughs. Here the dialogue is rapid-fire with the girls giving it their best, but to little avail. Too many gags fall flat, and McKinnon in particular ends up mugging like fury to make up for the script's deficiencies. As for the plot - there's definitely one in there somewhere. But when I stopped laughing, I stopped caring.

Ultimately The Spy Who Dumped Me is a real good news/bad news scenario - one that's starting to frustrate me. It's good that films are being made with comic actresses of this calibre in mind. And it's bad - painfully so - that they're often as lame as this one.

Gut Reaction: The kind of laughter that dies in your throat after ten minutes of trying, plus actual wincing at the volume. Lots of wishing it was better.

Where Are the Women?: High-profile - both behind the camera and in front - but there's no glory here for anyone. Even Gillian Anderson is wasted in a thankless extended cameo.

Ed's Verdict: 4/10. It's not loathsome like last year's The Hitman's Bodyguard, but it is still rubbish. And there's enough spark between Kunis and McKinnon to show what this misguided project should have been.