Let me explain – I thought there were eight or nine women worthy of being nominated for Best Actress last year, and although Jessica Chastain lost her spot in my Slice Awards shuffle, I’m still glad to have seen her walk away with the Academy Award for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Damn, I hate it when my Slice Awards miss the Oscar winner, especially when I have no genuine objection. But oh well, at the end of the day, it’s all opinion, and my bigger shame would be wanting to be relevant. I stand by my selections. But I bring this up now because I’m about to watch The 355, and I love watching the movies that come in between our award winners giving their award-winning performances and the awards themselves, that go on to give the stars bigger street cred and signing power – remember when Jennifer Lawrence made House at the End of the Street before her acclaim for Silver Linings Playbook? That movie stunk, and since The 355 was released in January, came and went without fanfare, it would be optimistic to be optimistic…
CIA agents Mason “Mace” Brown (Jessica Chastain) and Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan) are tasked with making a deal for a hard drive that holds an encryption capable of crippling any nations computer systems in seconds – a powerful weapon, and a no-no in the wrong hands. But rival groups, including French intelligence agent Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger) help to bundle the mission, and Mace tragically comes home alone. Suspended and angry, Mace decides she will complete the mission herself, restoring her reputation and… well, the world is at stake. With the help of retired MI6 agent Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o) and Colombian psychological assessor Graciela Rivera (Penélope Cruz) later on, these ladies follow leads that take them across the globe, running into bigger risks and complications as they go. It’s an action movie imagined by women, for women, but directed by Simon Kinberg.
I found it! Every year there’s a movie that the critics destroy, and I rather enjoy. My movie catch-up season for 2022 is underway, and last year I took time out to bitch about Malignant, where today I’m going to be much more measured talking about The 355, because it deserves more attention. Admittedly, the dialogue can be scraggly, the course of action can be convenient, but The 355 has four terrific characterisations, and I was deeply invested in this caper for a good hour and a half. There’s a big twist (and one of many) that I didn’t see coming, and I always appreciate a happy surprise. I’m always banging on about how anyone is capable of creating their own spy franchise without needing to assume the James Bond legacy for themselves, and The 355 is a prime example of this – it gives the women defined personalities, shared but separate footing in the mission, and rounded-out emotional connections to life outside the job. The giant action set pieces work well; at times all that is missing is a big sexy musical hook, akin to the James Bond theme, but traditions come later – musicians, get creative. Thankfully, The 355 barely gets ‘woke’, and that is, ‘defensive about womanhood’, until the very end, if at all. I think people were turned off by the trailer, that really emphasises the ‘355’ and stupidly, basically outlines the entire closing act. In reality, the 355 tag-sign only becomes a thing at the very end, much like the thought to officially team-up in Fan4stic, and lasts for only moments longer than any belief that there’d be a Fan4stic sequel, before the ladies go their own ways – I wrote that last line before I discovered that director Simon Kinberg, who co-wrote this movie as well, also co-wrote Fan4stic – there’s a pattern in his projects! I’ve uncovered it without even knowing I was looking for it.
Complimenting the characterisations on the page, is the calibre of talent in The 355 that would be crazy to overlook. I don’t think Lupita Nyong’o is given enough recognition for her work in Us, and it was a surprise to see her slumming it in the little Aussie movie Little Monsters, although I’m sure it was a bit of fun. Jessica Chastain already has her ass-kicking and CIA credentials with Ava and Zero Dark Thirty (although I never saw the latter), and along with Penélope Cruz, who is almost a veteran of the silver screen at this stage, is on top of her game, as they are both reigning nominees by the Academy this past season. Cruz and Diane Kruger also capture the foreign market, and it makes this international caper feel way more authentic. Pointedly, anyone can be given poorly written characters and flail around with it, and a hacky actor can botch writing with potential, but these ladies combine for a compelling dynamic, bringing their own audacity in shared scenes, and separating The 355 positively from other feminine adjacent projects like the recent Charlie’s Angels.
Yet I must point out that the McGuffin that’s got all these specialised groups in a flap seems to already exist in British agent Nyong’o’s hands, right? Right??? There’s also a fifth agent that I’m yet to mention; Chinese intelligence agent Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing) – she is the last to join the allied crusade and she has a more overarching presence instead of adding her own piece to the team, which is a little disappointing. But I figure, say this movie was to have a sequel, no doubt it would try to cram in more characters, more badass ladies, and this Asian agent would probably fit the bill. Since she comes in late, we really only get a new flavour in the stew a little earlier than usual. Also, the last half an hour could’ve rapped up quicker – I feel the movie’s high point is the infiltration to the dark web auction, and the movie doesn’t maintain its intensity after that (maybe because the proceeding events are ruined in the trailer too). I wouldn’t have killed Khadijah’s boyfriend – he seemed a nice guy, what did he do?! But I know I’m not supposed to like it, and I don’t like it! I just wanted Khadijah to have a happy ending – she’d made the great point about James Bond always going home alone, and I felt her emotional stakes were already high enough in this movie without getting kicked in the butt by irony.
I’ve recently prowled around this year’s action movie selection so far – The Man from Toronto, The Gray Man, The 355 – and this is my pick of the bunch. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime or available at $6.99 on YouTube, so give it a go. I thought it was pretty neat, and I’d hang with these ladies again.
3.5
Leave a Reply