From top to bottom, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is a good movie and good in some surprising ways. A pair of performances from Henry Cavill and Elizabeth Debicki are outstanding in a movie that’s not only fun, but so tongue-in-cheek it’s almost sincere. There are some nits to pick and overall it’s rather slight, which prevents it from being downright wonderful, but none of this takes away from its overall entertainment value.
Henry Cavill‘s performance as post-World War II smuggler-turned-CIA-spy Napoleon Solo trumps any recent iteration of James Bond when it comes to playing the suave, debonaire and downright cool secret agent. This isn’t to say that’s necessarily what they were going for, but I’ll be damned if director Guy Ritchie‘s intent wasn’t to throw a little jab 007’s way, dressing Cavill in Savile Row suits, almost visibly winking at Sean Connery along the way. Come to think of it, the entire film is doing this very thing. Giving the audience action set pieces they’ve come to expect from their big budget blockbusters, but doing so with a wry sense of humor. Some of the dialogue can be a bit spot on and the sexual innuendo a little tiresome, but it’s much better than the self-serious approach so many blockbusters (even the ones that pride themselves on being “fun”) take with their dramatic elements.
Taking on the role of the femme fatale is Elizabeth Debicki (aka the best thing about 2013’s The Great Gatsby) who’s just as good as Cavill, if not better, setting herself up to be the next Vanessa Redgrave if she’s offered the right roles. Together these two, playing opposite sides of the hero/villain line, deliver the film’s acting highlights, playing off each other with equal measures sexual and goal-driven verve.
Cavill, and his chiseled features, was born to play this role and pulls it off with great imagination, confidence and humor. But Solo isn’t alone in his adventures, eventually finding himself in the company of Gaby (Alicia Vikander), a German mechanic whose Nazi father is presumed to be alive and working on a nuclear bomb for a shady org. Then there’s KGB agent Illya Kuryakin played by Armie Hammer with an equal parts distracting and droll Russian accent and set of morals. The goal is to find Gaby’s father, prevent the nuclear bomb from getting into the wrong hands. Double crosses, car chases, triple crosses, boat chases, sexy soirees and a bit with an electric chair (the best overall sequence in the entire film) make up a film that is likely to land with a bit of a thud with general audiences thanks to marketing that doesn’t sizzle or promise blue beams shooting into the sky, but should find appreciation with those that give it a shot.
The best comparison would to call this more of a globe-trotting Lethal Weapon, but the line between straight-man and wild-man in this one isn’t as clearly drawn (or perhaps I should say is slightly blurred) when compared to the roles played by Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in the ’80s and ’90s cop classics.
Yes, Illya, for all intents and purposes, is the straight-man and Solo the charismatic rogue. Both are equally accomplished when it comes to their skill sets, but Illya isn’t without his character quirks that actually keep him much more closely tied to Solo than I personally would have preferred. Added to that, Illya’s performance seems like an act, and I don’t know if it was the fake Russian accent or what, but I never believed Hammer’s performance. He simply seemed like an American pretending to be a Russian and a stereotypical one at that. Intentional or not, it just didn’t work for me.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. began as a Steven Soderbergh movie with the likes of George Clooney and Bradley Cooper once set to star. To think what that film might have looked like compared to what you may imagine Guy Ritchie would deliver, before actually seeing the movie combined with recent memory of his ADD-addled Sherlock Holmes films, would lead one to assume this would just be a tonal mess from start to finish. However, while it shares a little in common with Ritchie’s Sherlock films, this one mostly stands on its own. I can’t help but wonder how it would have turned out had Tom Cruise stuck with the film instead of dropping out to film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, but I wouldn’t trade Cavill for anyone based on the final product. Cruise would have probably chewed up the role as much as Cavill, but he might have looked comically short opposite the 6’5″ Hammer.
Ritchie manages his action, comedy and wit very well here, adapting the ’60s television show (which I’ve never seen) alongside his Holmes collaborator Lionel Wigram, in such a way that it definitely maintains the feel of an old school spy feature with sly shades of modernity. Whether it be the filmmaking, editing, mannerisms, what have you, this is a movie that should excite all ages, though it’s likely to find favor in an older crowd, which could suggest it will have a long shelf life on home video, but will likely prevent it from breaking out theatrically.
