Starring: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, and Gillian Anderson
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 127 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2018
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This American action comedy-drama tells the story of two best friends who are chased by assassins after an ex-boyfriend comes back into their lives. The film is largely photographed in the scenic surrounds of some of the major cities of Europe.
Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon) live together in Los Angeles. Audrey is a 30-year old organic grocery store cashier, and she has been dumped by her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux), who parted company with her by a text message sent from Lithuania on the day before her 30th. birthday. After the dumping (explaining the film’s title), Drew unexpectedly turns up at their apartment with a team of assassins hotly in pursuit.
When Drew makes contact with Audrey, Morgan tries to set his possessions ablaze to show her empathy for Audrey’s plight. Pleading with them not to do that, Drew tells them he is actually an undercover agent working for the CIA. Neither Audrey nor Morgan had any idea about his true identity, and Drew tells them that the assassins want something hidden in his old football trophy.
The predicament embroils Audrey and Kate in a major international, terrorist conspiracy, and they go on the run to escape the assassins. Everyone quickly becomes caught in violent double-crossings, and shootouts, as the body count rises. Grisly deaths are accompanied by comic punchlines in the name of adventure drama. The action satirises James Bond-type spy movies, and it takes Audrey and Morgan from Los Angeles to Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and Prague.
The movie lies somewhere between a dramatic enactment of violent happenings, and a satirical comedy caper with witty bite. One deft touch that has comic impact is the scene where Morgan and Audrey highjack an elderly couple’s car, but have no idea of how to drive it, and give it back.
The movie vacillates between a heavy action movie, a comment on modern feminism, and a get-together-with-a-good friend comedy. It aims to please in all three ways. The plot takes the viewer off in several different directions, and it is impossible to differentiate the good guys from the bad ones. Gillian Anderson plays the Boss of MI6, and who is held in high esteem by Morgan and Audrey simply for being a woman in charge.
McKinnon and Kunis show their comic flair in scenes, and work best together when their comedy antics explore feminist satire. Their styles are a foil to each other, with Kunis playing it straight against the frantic antics of McKinnon. When Drew leaves the two women with a delivery that needs to be taken to Vienna, the movie becomes a globe-trotting adventure across Europe, with no violent stone left unturned. On the way, they meet spies who may or may not be spies, and sundry killers who clearly don’t have their interests at heart, and many of them meet grisly ends.
The movie reminds one a little of the movie, “Spy” (2015), starring Melissa McCarthy. The dramatic link between this film and that one is the comedy depiction in both movies of women who are being undervalued by others, and who also undervalue themselves. That theme is worth stressing, but the film submerges the issue in a sea of Bond-style violence. McKinnon and Kunis make a good comedy team, however, and spar well together. The spoof character of the movie colours the misadventures of two talented women who perhaps needed a different kind of film to show their comic talents to best advantage.
This is a violent action, female-buddy comedy, with strong satirical bent, and the film crosses entertainingly between the three genres. There are some good comedy moments, moments of good spy adventure, some witty comedy dialogue, and lots of positive bonding. And the film tries hard to be all of those many different things.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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