The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: A Review

2015 has been a good year for spy movies. Kingsman was a great reconstruction of old-school James Bond and Melissa Mccarthy's Spy got plenty of mileage out of parodying the genre, and there's still the stoner Jason Bourne flick American Ultra and a new James Bond adventure before the year is out. But of all the stylish cloak and dagger film of 2015, Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is probably the straightest. A 21st century update of a well-remembered 60s TV show, it looked to make a splash and stick out by making a conventional Cold War adventure but with a stylistic flair and unique visual aesthetic that harkened back to the colorful spy craze of the 60s but without coming off like a spoof or lazy homage. On that note Ritchie's film succeeds but the story it's telling is very flawed, though not for a lack of trying.

The year is 1963. CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) are both on the trail of East German auto mechanic Gabby Teller (Alicia Vikander). Teller's father is a former Nazi scientist who's gone missing along with his research, a method of enriching uranium so simple it could enable anyone with enough cash to make their own nuclear weapons, and she is both sides only lead. After butting heads while getting Gabby across the Berlin Wall, Solo & Kuryakin's superiors decide to pair the two agents up to track down the missing doctor. The two rival agents, along with Gabby, jet off to Italy to investigate a mysterious female shipping magnate with ties to ex-Nazis and who may be a member of a worldwide criminal organization that has kidnapped Gabby's father. From there, the three engage in a complex spy game to outwit the villain and get the research out of her hands. That's if Solo & Kuryakin can put aside their differences for long enough to work together.

Solo (Henry Cavill) & Kuryakin (Armie Hammer).

What was going to make or break The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  was the relationship between Solo & Kuryakin. If the two characters didn't click, even on the base level of a mismatched partners action flick, nothing about the movie was going to rescue it. Thankfully that isn't an issue here. Cavill & Hammer have great chemistry together and they make the two characters play off each wonderfully. It's entertaining to see the two go from hating each others guts to having a kind of grudging respect between them, very reminiscent of the Homes-Watson relationship from Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movies but with a greater arc since Solo & Kuryakin start out as rivals and have to become partners. In spy movie terms Solo is more James Bond, smooth and unflappable, where Kuryakin is more Jason Bourne, a cold living weapon, and the movie gets some good narrative momentum out of seeing Cavill & Hammer have these two stock personalities clash and eventually take on a little of the other one to be a better team. I will say Hammer is the better of the two leads though, as his Kuryakin shows a greater range of character than Cavill's Solo who never really drops his layer of effortless cool even in dire circumstances.

But while their partnership is strong, it does highlight the film's greatest weakness. It feels like it's missing its second act. There's a change in the characters near the middle of the film that doesn't come out of nowhere but does feel very sudden. Like they went from unwanted team-up to spy bros at the flip of a switch. It's weird because from how the two's views of each other had been established, the moment where they actually come together and start liking each other seems like it should be a bigger deal narratively. But this doesn't just hurt the arc of the two's growing partnership, it hurts the plot overall. For example, there's a running subplot about Kuryakin suffering from episodes of uncontrollable violence that gets dropped midway through the film only to come up again at the end. From the focus it's given in the first act of the movie, you would think this subplot would continue throughout and would be given a payoff at the end but it largely goes unresolved. Taking some more time to flesh things out in the middle probably would have helped overall, building up some tension and intrigue for the villains' plot and giving the central relationship of Solo & Kuryakin a chance to grow a bit more organically.

Our heroes, ready for their next mission.

For me though the most interesting character in the piece is Gabby Teller. On the one hand I want to call her a missed opportunity, since she's given a lot of shades of character that never quite coalesce, but there's a lot in that mess that's really fascinating. I credit the film for not just making her a love interest, and the romance that's hinted at between her & Kuryakin is one she initiates, and for making her just as capable a spy as either of the leads. In fact there's a twist near the end that shows she's actually more clever than either of them. But her motivations remain unclear throughout the film and too often she ends up playing mom to the antics of Solo & Kuryakin, something she acknowledges in the film. What probably elevates Gabby is that her actress is Alicia Vikander, who made her spectacular debut earlier this year in Ex Machina. Vikander has great screen presence, looks amazing in vintage 60s fashions, and gives Gabby a playfulness that helps keep the character consistent. There's a scene where she starts dancing to some smooth jazz before basically forcing herself on Kuryakin that really highlights this quality of the character.

What really holds the whole thing together, despite the shaky story and characters, is the slick filmmaking. Ritchie is a noted visual stylist and it shows here, with his use of circling camera angles, pans, zooms, and pullbacks to create a full sense of scene geography and copious amounts of split-screen. These make the film really come alive in the action scenes which feel constantly moving but never disorienting. This unique cinematography along with a lack of shyness toward bright 60s colors is what gives The Man from U.N.C.L.E. a standout look and manages to not come off like a cartoon. The 60s pop-art aesthetic carries over to the music as well, using classic tunes the jet-set would have listened to back in the day to help ground the film in the period. Ritchie also makes use of the music to heighten the excitement of the action and punctuate some of the comedy beats.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  is more style than substance, but given the subject matter I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. 60s spy flicks were usually more about delivering cool action and exotic locales than anything else and Ritchie's film delivers on both of those if nothing else. His usual visual flair and the music makes it entertaining to watch and even if they don't quite live up to their potential, the characters are still interesting and entertaining. I would recommend it just for Hammer as Kuryakin. He's really the MVP of the movie and his performance is the most fleshed out and complete. Even if his Russian accent gets a little cartoony in places.

A sleek and fun period adventure with great chemistry in the central partnership. A few missteps away from being great, but with enough style to rise above mediocre.

Final Score: 4/5