Atomic Blonde (2017)

ATOMIC BLONDE  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: David Leitch
    Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan,
    John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sofia Boutella,
    James Faulkner, Til Schweiger, Barbara Sukowa
Action-fantasy, spy-vs.-spy stuff, with Charlize Theron as a stiletto-heeled agent dispatched to Berlin just as the Wall's about to come down. James McAvoy plays a fellow agent who's been in the city long enough to go native, working the black market and playing all sides against each other. He knows the place and understands its corruption, and he works for MI6, too, but can he be trusted? Well, no, but neither can anybody else. The plot plays like recycled John Le Carré, walking a narrow line between intricate and incomprehensible. It doesn't matter. The movie's all about style, from its muted colors to the emphatic way its characters drink and smoke to the ice water Theron bathes in to the brutal efficiency of the fight scenes. As an action figure, Charlize proves again she's the real deal, playing a character who can absorb insane amounts of punishment and still get up and kick ass. Beat her half to death and you'll just make her mad. Then she'll get even. And look good doing it.