"It's a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
Hello everyone!
Now, usually, I'd just do my own thing on the computer while she was at it, but I got sucked into the story, and then some.
I mean, it IS Charlize Theron though.
The woman looks too good to be true.
I want whatever she's having.
And while I'm at it, let me tell you all about the little movie she did back in 2017 (geez, is it almost 5 years ago already?) that, apparently, also has a sequel in development! This is exciting news because the movie is absolutely fantastic.
Convoluted, but fantastic.
It's called Atomic Blonde, and BOY, is it atomic!
I may have a spy thriller or two somewhere in the woodworks on here which, if I find them, I'll link them down below for your perusing pleasure, but otherwise let's check just what this one is all about, shall we?
The movie begins RIGHT before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and we get a pretty violent start into what will be the mantra of the whole story: a British agent is shot and killed by a Soviet one, then dumped in the river. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem if not for the fact that said agent had The List - a microfilm with information about every. Single. Agent. In. Berlin.
On BOTH sides of the Wall.
In response, MI6 calls in their top-level problem-solver, Lorraine (Theron), who is instructed to get the List back at any and all costs, which sends her on the first flight to Berlin.
Now it should be said that the movie is shown from two points of view: one is Lorraine's debriefing after the mission is already over and done with, and one is us actually following her every move as she navigates the underground and intelligence map of both East and West Berlin.
On with the show then, shall we?
Right after she lands in Germany, Lorraine is ambushed by KGB agents, and you really feel sorry, because she wallops their asses so bad they don't get up again. She also almost shoots her point of contact, Percival (James McAvoy), who was SUPPOSED to pick her up, and who heads the MI6 station in Berlin.
She only stop when he holds out her blood red Louboutin as peace offering.
These two naturally distrust each other, because intelligence agents wouldn't be INTELLIGENT if they trusted the first person who came along, and besides, there's so many layers to Berlin's nets that it's a lot better for their general health, too. Lorraine is ostensibly in the city to collect the body of the MI6 agent who was initially killed, but it turns out they were actually lovers back in the day, too, and that she needs more information, which she hopes to find in his apartment.
Naturally, this is where the German police ambush her.
Again, you feel incredibly sorry ... for them, since Lorraine is a badass and her making mince meat of the schmucks who came at her is probably expected.
In the debrief, Lorraine tells her superiors that she suspects Percival tipped the police off, because he also lied about knowing the agent who she went there to 'retrieve', and so that was basically no trust right off the bat. Things get further complicated as she goes to a restaurant where the head of the KGB wants to have a word, but luckily the lovely Sofia Boutella plays a novice French agent who steps in to help, and while she's practically green around the gills, she's handy with a camera, and also just ... handsy.
She and Lorraine have a little thing to blow off steam in the cauldron that's about to have its lid chucked off, especially as the List surfaces as on sale through a watchmaker that Lorraine herself also visits - he seems to be a rather community point of contact, to be honest.
While she's hunting down all the trails and meeting all the people (and kicking ass while looking fabulous), Percival actually gets the List off the Soviet who initially got it from the MI6 agent, and this is now a bit of a problem because Percival is never completely TRUE to his country.
Also, that list is a ticking timebomb, especially with the name Satchel on it, an agent that MI6 suspects has been double-crossing them for years, playing them and the KGB both, so they want him dead.
Just when you think there might be a bit of a break, we get another slam: the Stasi officer, Spyglass (his codename) who actually first gave the List out, wants to defect to West Berlin. And what's more, he remembers the entire List, too, because his memory is just that good.
Naturally, in a spy movie, this means he DEAD dead, even though Lorraine does her very best to get him across and save him.
On top of it all, she learns Percival planted a bug on her (as you do), and since he can't be trusted she hurries over to the French agent, only to find her dead as a door nail. Why? Well, Percival killed her after she threatened him, but she gets the last laugh because she left photos of his meeting with the KGB for Lorraine, who hustles after him, both for revenge, and for the goddamn List that's harder to get a hand of than the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies.
She kills Percival in revenge, and, when accosted about this in her debrief, she explains that, while Percival was telling MI6 he'd found Satchel and whatnot, HE was actually Satchel and was pulling the strings of both the MI6 and KGB all along, having her ambushed, arranging secret meet-ups, killing Spyglass before he could defect, the lot of it. However, Lorraine doesn't know what Percival did with the List in the end, and so MI6 has to close the case.
This is fine with her, because a few days later, she meets with the KGB in Paris and shoots them dead - revealing that she'd been working to bring down the Iron Curtain with every piece of false information she fed the Soviets along the way.
Oh, and also, SHE'S Satchel.
That's right, she's a TRIPLE agent, having been planted in MI6 by the CIA, the Americans having a nose for these things and worrying about the exposure, and the fact that MI6 wasn't up to task. Lorraine had been playing the two sides expertly for YEARS, and in the end framed Percival, making him look like Satchel, cleaned up everything behind her (plastic wrap on the floor, people, the blood is easier to just wrap up than scrub out), and finally boarded a plane for America.
To go home.
I can't adequately describe just how GOOD this movie is, and how well done. The cast plays beautifully off one another, Theron vs McAvoy, then John Goodman and Toby Jones in the debrief. All the supporting cast is also phenomenal, and the choice of music to bring the atmosphere of Berlin to life is A+.
Not to mention Berlin itself! It's eerily well done, the differences between East and West startlingly shocking, and we get just a glimpse of what a boiling hot soup of intelligence mess it had to have been during the Cold War.
Theron absolutely nails it as Lorraine, and the truth that she's not just a double, but a triple agent is right out of left field, something you don't see coming until the very end.
Plus, woman looks FANTABULOUS. And she kicks ass like nobody's business.
Whenever the sequel comes out, I'll be right there watching.
10/10!
And the fashion is on point.
xx
*images and video not mine
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