Getting beyond the terrible title, obviously an homage to the James Bond title of
The Spy Who Loved Me,
The Spy Who Dumped Me offers some choice laughs from its capable comedic actors front and center, amid yet another cliche spy action-thriller plot to force them into potentially funny situations as part of its parody. The hit-to-miss ratio is in its favor this time out, and, though the plot-line may be tired, it does offer some good and wildly over-the-top action sequences to boast, even if it is clearly trying more for the audience seeking some good laughs.
The premise is that two BFFs, Audrey (Kunis,
Bad Moms) and Morgan (McKinnon,
Ferdinand), are finding more moments to bond when one of them ends up jilted by her boyfriend (Theroux,
Mute) over text. What she doesn’t know is that the now-ex has been living a double life as a spy, and he’s currently being sought at great cost from a major terrorist organization based in Austria. Now the two are in mortal jeopardy, as the terrorists continue to send their assassins after the information they may unwittingly have in their position, as the duo chooses to go into the proverbial lion’s den of Vienna.
The Spy Who Dumped Me is written (along with David Iserson, “SNL”) and directed by prior indie filmmaker Susanna Fogel (
Life Partners), who infuses some funny comedy, much of which is ad-libbed to be even funnier by her performers (McKinnon, as in most movies she is in, gets the lion’s share of laughs with her zany antics). Mila Kunis delivers a very charismatic performance, and even if the is more of the straight-woman of the pair, she pitches the part as perfectly as the limited characterization will allow, and her chemistry with McKinnon will make many hope their pair together again for a future project.
Given how inexperienced Fogel is in the genre of action flicks, it’s quite commendable that these action scenes come off as well as they do. it is an R-rated film, it should be noted, so some of the over-the-top violence can be a bit nastier than some will be expecting, though I don’t think that it ruins the tone of the lighthearted film overall. It’s also quite a crude comedy, albeit funny in this regard, but I throw that out there for those people who prefer to avoid movies with gross-out moments or references that are vulgar, as the film dips into that material on a number of occasions.
What keeps
The Spy Who Dumped Me in the realm of being a passably entertaining, if overly prolonged, film rather than a truly good one is not only is its inherent derivativeness, with a MacGuffin in the form of a USB flash drive which has contents that I couldn’t tell you the nature of what they contain, nor can I tell you what the end goal of the terrorist organization is; the makers of the film, quite rightly, must have figured that explanations literally won’t matter to anyone in the audience.
The villains aren’t formidable, but they offer more comedic moments than most spy comedies, who usually keep their villains menacing. One of the terrorists is a female gymnast who uses her physicality to good extent to make the action scenes more dynamic through the acrobatic displays. Another is a CIA operative obsessed with telling everyone about his educational background at Harvard, clearly thinking that his association with the esteemed school makes him esteemed as well. Neither of them have great impact on the plot at large, but they do spice things up in a welcome way to give the heroines more comedic interplay to bounce off.
The success of the film in many viewers’ eyes will likely come down to how funny they find the lead actresses, and how well they execute. As comedy is entirely subjective, I can only attest to the fact that I found enough humor within
The Spy Who Dumped Me to make it a worthwhile endeavor, though I will grant that those who don’t find McKinnon’s brand of humor funny, or Kunis’ style of acting endearing. will have a harder time finding the same enjoyment.
Qwipster’s rating: B-
MPAA Rated: R for violence, language throughout, some crude sexual material and graphic nudity
Running Time: 117 min.
Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, Gillian Anderson, Ivana Sakhno, Jane Curtin, Paul Reiser, Fred Melamed, James Feet
Director: Susanna Fogel
Screenplay: Susanna Fogel, David Iserson
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