Yearning for the spy movies of yore — particularly the jet-setting glamour of the 60s-era James Bond films — has become something of a genre itself this year.
In February, Matthew Vaughn directed his love letter to old Bond movies with Kingsman: The Secret Service, stating his preferences for a more fun spy action film rather blatantly. Now, Guy Ritchie brings us The Man from U.N.C.L.E., based on the mid-60s TV series.
Setting the film in the show’s original time period, rather than attempting to modernize the story, gives it a relatively authentic feel. (For those who might think U.N.C.L.E. is swiping its style from classic Ian Fleming Bond, the author had a hand in developing the series.) That seems particularly important, since this is essentially an origin story — a story that the TV show never told. Though the idea is surely to set up future sequels (which might not happen with this past weekend’s box office), this movie could also be seen as a lead-in to the original series.
Ritchie stays truer to his story’s era by not amping up the level of violence to modern tastes for graphic gore and extravagantly choreographed action. But he still can’t help himself, bringing more style and flourish than might be necessary. The film attempts to set an early tone with a frantic car chase, the type that has seemingly become a signature of international spy films since The Bourne Identity.
Yet I think that opening car chase is a problem, since it appears that a significant amount of digital effects were incorporated into the action. Compared to what we’ve seen in the Bourne films, the Daniel Craig Bond films and, most recently, in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, that feels like a cheat on Ritchie’s part. We’re not talking about superheroes flying or swarms of robots attacking. The bar has been raised high for cinematic action, and we’ve seen it done so well in recent years — and this summer, with Rogue Nation and Mad Max: Fury Road — with real stunts and practical effects that raise the on-screen stakes.
(I acknowledge that CGI is likely incorporated into many more movies and their set pieces than is immediately apparent on screen these days. That’s how good these digital effects have gotten. Yet that’s what makes those parts of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.‘s opening chase so troubling. I could certainly be wrong about how much of that chase was digitally created, but parts of it look fake, with the “weightless” quality often associated with CGI.)
But the car chase has the right idea in establishing the skills and quick thinking of the starring spies, American Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Russian Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), who present an intriguing contrast in styles and approach. Solo prefers to elude confrontation, relying on his knowledge of the terrain and where their getaway is stationed to foil his rival. Kuryakin can keep up with Solo’s strategy, but also favors a brute force solution that helps channel his always simmering rage.
The sequence also serves the purpose of demonstrating that Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) is no mere civilian who needs to be rescued by Solo and smuggled over the Berlin Wall. We learn right away that she’s an auto mechanic, familiar with an environment typically friendlier to men (which comes into play later on), and thus tougher than her small, pretty appearance might indicate. Teller also proves to be a more than capable driver through the streets of East Berlin, darting away from and smashing into Kuryakin when necessary.
Yet despite that promising introduction, Vikander’s character turns out to be little more than a storytelling device used for whatever the movie needs at any given point. Basically, Teller is exactly what the CIA and KGB viewed her as: a way to find her former Nazi scientist father, who’s been kidnapped by a megalomanical Italian couple (also with Nazi ties) in order to build them a nuclear bomb.
(You know, typing that last sentence makes me realize how thin and relatively insignificant the story is in what is ultimately a buddy spy movie.)
Later on, Teller serves as a potential love interest for Kuraykin when their cover puts them together as an engaged couple, used more to show that the Russian spy isn’t as cold and inhuman as his demeanor might suggest. But Ritchie also seems more interested in utilizing the gorgeous Vikander as a model to display the glamorous fashions of the time, even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense for her character to dress that way.
Though we eventually learn that there’s far more to Teller than what the spies (and the audience) have been led to believe, which would presumably put her on equal footing with Solo and Kuraykin, she still turns out to be a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by the end. Teller ends up being overshadowed by another female character, the villain Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki), who is far more important to the story — if for no other reason than she’s simply given more to do.
Yet The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is still an entertaining movie because of its lead actors. Cavill is charming and versatile as the womanizing, roguish Solo, showing far more range than Zack Snyder allowed him to demonstrate as an alienated, clenched-up Superman in Man of Steel. Hammer also gets to demonstrate the action-star capability that he was deprived of in The Lone Ranger, acting as a co-star rather than a sidekick. This role should get him the starring-role franchise that Cavill already has.
The two play off each other well as operatives accustomed to working alone, but forced to team up in the national interests of their respective countries. There’s a natural chemistry between Cavill and Hammer, making their banter as the devilish American and icy Russian believable and compelling. I’d love to see these guys play their roles again, now that the origin story is out of the way.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a brand that doesn’t hold much significance to modern audiences, yet was promising enough to intrigue names like Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Tom Cruise in its previous development. Ritchie gets ripped for being more style than substance as a director, but doesn’t contradict that reputation here with a movie that needed a more substantial story. It’s a shame, because his cast— which includes Hugh Grant and Jared Harris — deserved far better.