Spy

Like Matthew Vaughn recently did, Paul Feig has finally fulfilled his dream of making a Bond-style film. Instead of allusions for the initiated, he limited himself to adopting the basic narrative formula and structure (an action-packed prologue, a briefing at the agency’s headquarters, the acquisition of special equipment, global travel, a plan to destroy the world, capture and escape...), except for the stylish opening credits (in which the female silhouette is no longer a decorative object, but an actual moving figure). The uniqueness doesn’t consists in taking the genre’s hallmarks to parodic extremes (these are personified only by Jason Statham’s moronic super-macho character), but – even more subversively – in replacing the fearless, always elegant sexist dinosaur (copyright: M) with a middle-aged woman who is occasionally awkward and clumsy and has to wear clothes that make her look like a “homophobic aunt”. Thanks to the subtlety and imperfection of her transformation into an action heroine (she gets butterflies before going into action and faints or vomits at the sight of blood), she is very authentically human and feminine in every situation. Even as a top field agent, she doesn’t start behaving like an alpha-loner. On the contrary, she has to constantly switch between different “female” roles (only one of which has anything in common with the ill-mannered militant feminist that McCarthy played in her earlier films) while taking advantage of the fact that her rivals underestimate her and put her down as a woman, partly out of fear that she might take their place (the affirmation of her position as an unambitious office girl in the form of a “devilish” gift in the climax humorously serves for the elimination of one of the villains). She owes her success not to physical strength and sex appeal, but to her negotiating skills, her attention to detail (she remembers what was in fleetingly glimpsed photos) and ability to play on emotions. She manages to infiltrate the criminal organisation thanks to the fact that she is a member of a notional global “sisterhood”. Melissa McCarthy’s flexibility as an actress is most apparent in the variety of roles that she switches between. Every change of identity is convincing while never completely sidelining the real human being concealed beneath a terrible wig and disturbing t-shirt with a giant cat head. Instead of one-dimensional caricatures played for amusement, we see a woman struggling with demands placed on her from outside, which at a certain point in the narrative she defies (by going beyond the roles imposed on her) and goes her own way in the interest of accomplishing the mission. Personally, I see the action-espionage level as a refreshing bonus to the comedically lightweight but relatively uncompromising commentary on the persisting inequality across the labour market (including the placement of women in subordinate roles – see Susan’s uncritical admiration for Bradley), and not just in leadership positions (from the feminist perspective, the two caricatures of powerful women, uptight and with no sense of humor, are the most striking element of the film). At the same time, viewers who go to the cinema mainly to be entertained are not prevented from perceiving the film from the opposite end, i.e. as entertainment that effectively mixes extreme violence and coarse humour (both of which paradoxically work thanks to the seriousness with which the scenes are filmed) and which celebrates female friendship and the courage to go against prescribed roles only on the second plane. If, according to Feig, at least overseas box-office receipts confirm the film’s ability to appeal to both female viewers looking for an inoffensively “women’s” movie as well as viewers hungry for something action-packed with broadly comprehensible humor, Spy could be the start of a multi-film franchise. In light of the success of a feminist blockbuster (Mad Max), the idea of a spy comedy displacing chauvinism with a strong female element doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to me. And however much I may consider myself to be a fan of Bond movies (including those that most ostentatiously revere virility and masculinity), I definitely find it very likable. For the next one – if there is a next one – I would ask for more Jason Statham and an uncompromising editor who will cut down the scenes with partially improvised exchanges of witty lines before they start to become tiresome because of their length. 80% (06/03/2015) (less) (more)