The spurned identity Rom-com laughs meet spy-thriller intrigue By: Randall King Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018

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This article was published 01/08/2018 (2242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The violent-international-buddy-comedy-movie seems to be a thing every August. Last year it was The Hitman’s Bodyguard. The year before that it was War Dogs.

This year, at least, sees a welcome gender change-up: The Spy Who Dumped Me, buddying up Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, and directed by Susanna Fogel.

The title is a nod to Bond — The Spy Who Loved Me — and it’s funny how switching a single word exactly encompasses the comedic approach. All the outlandish action and intrigue, but brought to earth with an underlay of everyday romantic disappointment.

The disappointee is Audrey (Mila Kunis), stung in the aftermath of an apparent dumping by her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux), whom, we realize early, does not really work in the field of radio. Since we see Drew evading an army of international assassins with deadly efficiency, we know he is in the spy game, and that may have had something to do with his cruel decision to break up with Audrey via text.

Audrey’s protective best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon) suggests they burn his belongings. But at a crucial moment, Drew intervenes, telling Audrey she must take one of his possessions to Austria if she wants to stop a devastating terrorist threat.

So off they go, and what follows is, on the surface, a standard comedy of transposition. What happens when Bond stuff happens to a couple of well-intentioned L.A. gals in way over their heads?

The fact that they survive comes down to luck and pluck. Morgan is a struggling actress back home, so she tends to approach every challenge with a show-must-go-on mentality, even as live rounds are buzzing around her head. Audrey proves resourceful too, although her character is mired in romantic confusion. Does Drew really love her after all? Or does she have feelings for the hunky English spy Sebastian (Sam Hueghan) who may or may not have her best interests at heart?

Fogel, who also co-scripted with David Iserson, is having some fun blending the spy genre with a rom-com with the cheeky suggestion that they’re not all that different: If you think the spy business is riddled with intrigue, deception and danger, she suggests, you should try diving into the dating pool.

McKinnon tends to be an electric comic presence, and she too has some infectious fun here. Note her awed reaction to an immaculately put-together English spymaster played by Gillian Anderson. (McKinnon reportedly had a girlhood crush on Anderson in her early X-Files days and it triumphantly plays out here.) That said, McKinnon tends to too easily fall into her Saturday Night Live mode of performance, defaulting to an almost cartoon-y level of intensity onscreen and that can throw the comic dynamics out of balance. At this stage, McKinnon really needs to do a drama.

Still, with impressive action and some decent laughs, this is a perfectly acceptable August entertainment, which is more than you could say for War Dogs and The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

Randall King
Reporter

In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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