Atomic Blonde (2017) * *

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sofia Boutella, Eddie Marsan

Charlize Theron is the perfect choice to play the sleek, lean, and mean British agent Lorraine Broughton; the Atomic Blonde of the film's title who can kill with the creativity of John Wick while staying as cool as James Bond.     The trailers promise plenty of mayhem and the movie delivers.    However, there is historical perspective to the film's events by placing it against the backdrop of 1989 Berlin; with the imminent fall of the Berlin Wall days away as the Soviets and the west execute their last-ditch power plays before the Cold War ends.    It is like a fire sale of espionage tricks and killing in the name of country.    The trouble is the low energy and a reason to become emotionally invested.     Like the first John Wick movie proved:  you can kill hundreds of people and still be boring.     There needs to be a tug to pull us through to the other side, one which Atomic Blonde does not provide.      

Atomic Blonde is a triumph in providing ample civic tension amidst the spy games these people play.    The resistance to the Berlin Wall is forcing the hand of the Soviets and numerous news reports track the historic story, which provides the movie with some sort of deadline...I guess.     The film takes place under cold neon signs which pierce the chilly nights with 80s hits pulsating on the soundtrack of nightclubs and hotel rooms, in which people dance and screw the night away with little regard to what is happening just outside the club doors.     The days are gray with the smell of freedom in the air.    Lorraine's mission is to go to Berlin and retrieve a list of, I don't know, every agent who works for the CIA, MI6, and whatever other agency you can think of.     A double agent known as Satchel is in the mix, as is a Russian defector (Marsan) who knows the whereabouts of the infamous list.  

About these lists, which spies in not only Atomic Blonde, but nearly every other spy film since the inception of spy movies. want to get their hands on.     Can't these agencies, with their top-of-the-line security gadgets and the latest computer technology, stop creating lists of agents and their biographical information which can fall so easily into enemy hands?    And if you are going to create a list, can you not put their home addresses and past mission histories on there?    The agency superiors in Atomic Blonde are worried more about their respective agency's notorious deeds coming to light than they are about the exposure of their agents.      You mean the CIA and MI6 did some pretty horrific things in the name of God and country?     Don't stop the presses.     The British Secret Service seems to know how to get a hold of James Bond without checking their computers to see where he lives.   

With that mundane objective aside, Atomic Blonde gets down to business moments after Lorraine arrives in Berlin.     She doesn't exactly dress inconspicuously.     Her wardrobe and platinum blonde hair make her look like a tall dominatrix in town to meet a client.     Subtlety is not Lorraine's strong suit.    She escapes KGB attempts to kill her with help of another British agent, David Percival (McAvoy), whose own past and loyalties are murky.    You never know where any of these agents really stand.     Like Joe Pesci says in JFK, "Everyone is switching sides all the time.   It's fun and games, man, fun and games,"    Those who wind up with broken bones and bullets in their heads would think otherwise.    Even Lorraine herself takes enough of a beating to soak herself in an ice cube-filled bathtub just to keep the swelling down on her bruises, cuts, scrapes, and shiners.    Or is this just a character trait thrown in for good measure?

Atomic Blonde tells the story in flashback, with Lorraine facing a debriefing with her boss (Jones) and a CIA bigwig (Goodman) on hand along with lots of recording equipment and one of those two-way mirrors which have really become clichéd by now.    We see how Lorraine arrived at this point.     We also meet a French novice agent (Boutella), who has the hots for Lorraine and the goods on all of the players in the game.     She and Lorraine exchange information and possibly bodily fluids during a lesbian sex scene which isn't nearly as hot as you would expect.   

Maybe the trouble with Atomic Blonde is that, despite the chases, killings, and double crosses, it simply isn't much fun.     A pall hangs over everything like the endless gray skies which stay in a holding pattern over Berlin.     Theron has the icy blonde thing down pat, but she does allow for glimpses of humanity behind her façade.    The most effective performance is Boutella's, who is naively shocked to learn that earning a living as a spy isn't the fun and games Pesci promised.    Atomic Blonde does not have the benefit of hindsight that we possess.    The Cold War took place over 40 years with, it seems, no clear objective.     Neither side was keen on all-out nuclear war which would grind their spy vs. spy battles to an abrupt halt.      Information was stolen, agents double and sometimes triple-crossed each other, people died, and the U.S. and the Soviet Union forever engaged in a tiresome and futile game of one-upmanship.     After all was said and done, what exactly was all that about?