Review | Film review: Atomic Blonde – Charlize Theron is killing it in hyperviolent spy thriller
For all Theron’s daring in her role as a British secret agent in 1989 Berlin, and despite some impressive scenes of orchestrated carnage, film is more smug than stylish
2.5/5 stars
Following the success of Wonder Woman, Lucy and Rogue One , Hollywood finally seems willing to support action movies fronted by female stars. Atomic Blonde casts Charlize Theron – who proved her mettle in the genre in Mad Max: Fury Road – as a British spy, sent to Berlin just days before the Wall comes down, whose search for a stolen list of espionage agents leads her into a cold-war web of deception and betrayal.
Adapted from Antony Johnston’s graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde has long been a passion project for the South African Oscar winner, and there’s no doubting Theron’s commitment to the material. Its producer as well as star, Theron underwent months of intensive physical training to portray Lorraine Broughton, an icy bisexual killing machine working for MI6.
Under the direction of David Leitch, one half of the team behind Keanu Reeves action epic John Wick , Theron proves brutally efficient, dispatching an endless stream of KGB goons in a series of elaborately choreographed set pieces. In the film’s centrepiece, Broughton single-handedly fights her way from inside an elevator, down a stairwell and into a car, all captured in an unbroken five-minute tracking shot.
