“Atomic Blonde” Is Almost Like A Lengthy and Brutal Cologne Ad

The highly stylized spy flick is based on a graphic novel published by Portland's Oni Press.

(courtesy of imdb.com)

An adaptation of the Oni Press graphic novel Coldest City, Atomic Blonde depicts Berlin at the Cold War's last gasp.

Charlize Theron plays a British secret agent set to meet up with James McAvoy's rogue operative and rescue a vital informant from East Germany. A watch carrying the identity of a critical double agent goes missing. An adorably unprepared French spy falls into Theron's bed. Thickly accented Stasi officers do horrible things.

It's a fitting checkpoint in director David Leitch's career between the fatalist vengeance slog of John Wick (on which he was an uncredited co-director) and the post-modern mercenary spree of Leitch's next project, Deadpool 2.

Leitch's specific brand of violence—an instantly recognizable modern dance borne of the moment when swaggering deliberation makes way for blood-dimmed reflex—blends effortlessly with the faintly ridiculous formalism of spy movies.

It's curiously old-fashioned in its nostalgia for analog recording devices and state secrets unspooled through microfiche, but Atomic Blonde overcomes the wearying machinations of an energy-suck framing device and labyrinthine plot by literally drowning out every exposition with a soundtrack that's an upscale goth-club wonderland of post-punk/new wave.

Drenched in spray-paint hot pink and steel gray, the inattentive viewer might very well confuse Atomic Blonde with a lengthy and brutal cologne ad. But even with the playfully stylized flourishes teasing coherency from a pointlessly complicated narrative, the film has a giddy devotion to its own daft momentum.

CRITIC'S RATING: 3/4 stars.

Rated R. Atomic Blonde plays at Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Oak Grove, St. Johns Pub and Theater, Tigard, Vancouver.

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