by Haley Mitchell, online & photography editor
While unorthodox in both title and plot, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is doing well for its first weekend in theaters and rightfully so. Sporting the fresh faces of action stars who aren’t Bruce Willis or a James Bond, this film was wonderfully surprising and beautiful in a spy-movie sort of way.
American CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavil) is forced to team up with Russian operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) in a race against time to find a Nazi nuke in Europe. But the spice of this movie comes from its spunky supporting female characters–a mechanic who carries important information and secrets (Alicia Vikander) and the seductively cunning villain of the film (Elizabeth Debicki).
Every character was written with familiarity–the smooth spy, the lovably misunderstood Russian, all obviously echoes of other franchises whose characters are so over exaggerated that they’re basically stereotypical and staple–but the interactions of these characters brings certain aspects of surprise to their performances. Their actions aren’t as predictable as their familiar counterparts in other films, making the tone of “TMfU”? subtly different.
Finding a dangerous bomb in Europe is supposed to be serious and frantic work, but the story never felt rushed. Unfortunately it also never felt very close-cut, like time was an issue. Comedy was also more present in the story than in other film, going above and beyond the witty one-liners every spy is known to deliver as they storm a hideout and take down bad guys.
Its action sequences are also a bit unconventional, using a split screen approach that’s a little busy but shows off the detail orientation of the flick. Those drawn out chase and getaway scenes are still there, but in a more compacted form.
If hot men in nice suits isn’t aesthetic enough, the film is also beautifully tailored to a streamlined sixties vibe that is seamless throughout, and colored and costumed exquisitely. According to its IMDb page, the film was largely shot on location and using some actual vintage costumes, and I’m not surprised. The attention applied to every last detail is easy to see and gives every scene a sense of finesse.
Even with a few sexy lamps (see here), this film was thoroughly entertaining–I’ll gladly see this one again.
