Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Man from U.N.C.L.E

I am too young to remember the television series (I sometimes lament the fact that I didn't grow up in the 1960s), but I have long been looking forward to the film adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  I had a chance to see it last night and it is fantastic!  During the height of the Cold War, an Italian crime family led by Victoria Vinciguero (Elizabeth Debicki) has enlisted (coerced?) the services of a German scientist to create a nuclear weapon.  Both the United States and the Soviet Union want to prevent this from happening (and possibly steal the technology for their own use) so they join forces and send CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) to Rome to stop them.  Their only lead is the scientist's daughter Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander), whom they rescue from East Berlin, but she may or may not be all that she appears.  Can the two enemy agents cooperate long enough to save the world from destruction?  Guy Ritchie is known for very stylized action scenes with pulse-pounding music underneath them and this film certainly delivers.  It is just so much fun to watch and I particularly enjoyed the car chase through East Berlin.  Hammer is not my favorite actor (Don't even get me started on The Lone Ranger!) but he is great in this role.  The chemistry between Hammer and Cavill is one of the highlights of the film.  Their quick and witty back-and-forth banter (another hallmark of a Guy Ritchie film) is hilarious and I loved it whenever they tried to one up each other with their spycraft and gadgets.  This is not one of Vikander's best performances (see here and here) but it hardly matters because she wears fabulous clothes and accessories (the sunglasses!) and has a few great stunts.  Speaking of clothes and accessories, I loved the 1960s aesthetic of the film: suave, stylish, and super cool.  It is well worth the price of admission just to see Henry Cavill cavort in, shall we say, some very well-tailored suits!  Even though the story is a familiar one, I thought it was wildly entertaining and, given the many allusions to the backstories of all of the characters and the montage of their dossiers in the end credits, I predict a sequel (although there is no end of credits scene).  Go see it!

Note:  It is worth mentioning that I am a huge fan of spy movies (I read too many Le Carre, Forsyth, and Ludlum novels in high school) so it is not surprising that I would enjoy The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  I loved the recent Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and I cannot wait for the latest Bond installment, Spectre, in the fall.

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