The Spy Who Dumped Me
Aug. 23rd, 2018 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerIn between Never Goin’ Back and The Spy Who Dumped Me, my movie viewing this week has really highlighted just how tragically low is the bar set by the Bechdel test. These movies don’t just have two female characters who manage to squeeze in a conversation about something other than a man; they both center on two female characters who spend the entire movie talking about everything and anything.
In The Spy Who Dumped Me, the interlocutors are Audrey and Morgan, thirty-something roommates and best friends who get sucked into espionage escapades when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend Drew (who just broke up with her by text message) shows up to retrieve his stuff - only for snipers to start trying to shoot him right there in the apartment. He’s a spy, Drew explains hurriedly. This second-place fantasy football trophy actually contains a USB drive full of important information that has to be delivered to Vienna tomorrow. Can Audrey take care of it if -
Then Drew gets shot in the head. Audrey and Morgan are left with the fantasy football trophy, and a choice: should they stay put, easy pickings for any stray assassins (and also liable to get picked up by the police, as Morgan just pushed the guy who shot Drew out the window when he turned his gun toward Audrey)... or should they go to Austria?
And thus begins their madcap European adventure! The trailer led me to expect goofy spy hijinks, which is not exactly inaccurate, but these are goofy spy hijinks with a high body count. This leads not so much to tonal whiplash as tonal uncertainty; the movie isn’t quite clear how serious it wants to be. It’s absolutely one of those movies where you need to turn off the part of your brain that says things like, “But how often do spies have shoot-outs in Viennese cafes really?” and “Wait but this final plot twist makes no sense, did they just happen to have a robot replica in reserve?”
Fortunately, the viewer is amply compensated for such bobbles by the chemistry between Audrey and Morgan (Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon). McKinnon brings the OTT comedy and the trapeze duel, while Kunis plays the less flashy but equally important role of straight man to the madness. They cheer each other on, they cheer each other up, they chatter themselves through a torture session with a bitter former gymnast: they are the dynamic duo and they take on the world.
There’s also a hot British spy man with a small but attractive scar and loyalties just dubious enough to add an extra frisson to his interactions with Morgan and Audrey, and his even hotter spy boss (played by Gillian Anderson) who accent is as crisp as her skirt suit, on whom Morgan develops a crush so powerful that it practically catapults her out of her chair.
Also a standout: Morgan’s relationship with her parents, who are nearly as zany as she is and totally in her corner even when she tells them that she and Audrey have just killed someone. Well, two someones. Well, they might be up to three at that point, but it was self-defense - “Then that’s fine!” Morgan’s parents heartily assure her, speaking together on the extension.
There is also a moment that I found satisfying for obvious personal reasons where a spy shoots out an espresso hopper and the beans cascade across the floor. Take that, espresso machines of the world!
***
I am happy to report that, although there are only three fics on AO3 so far, they have already covered all the important shipping bases: Morgan/Audrey (great Morgan voice, shows Morgan & Audrey's first meeting, highly recommended: here's a link), Morgan/Audrey/Sebastian, and Morgan/the hot MI6 boss lady, whose name the internet informs me is Wendy.
Actually, I lied. There is a fourth interesting ship, and it is Audrey/Morgan/Morgan’s self-destructive yet powerful unrequited crush on the arousingly terrifying Wendy. But then again I am not sure Morgan is capable of fear, so if there’s any terror going on it’s probably Audrey’s. Maybe she’ll develop a terror-crush on Wendy too?
In The Spy Who Dumped Me, the interlocutors are Audrey and Morgan, thirty-something roommates and best friends who get sucked into espionage escapades when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend Drew (who just broke up with her by text message) shows up to retrieve his stuff - only for snipers to start trying to shoot him right there in the apartment. He’s a spy, Drew explains hurriedly. This second-place fantasy football trophy actually contains a USB drive full of important information that has to be delivered to Vienna tomorrow. Can Audrey take care of it if -
Then Drew gets shot in the head. Audrey and Morgan are left with the fantasy football trophy, and a choice: should they stay put, easy pickings for any stray assassins (and also liable to get picked up by the police, as Morgan just pushed the guy who shot Drew out the window when he turned his gun toward Audrey)... or should they go to Austria?
And thus begins their madcap European adventure! The trailer led me to expect goofy spy hijinks, which is not exactly inaccurate, but these are goofy spy hijinks with a high body count. This leads not so much to tonal whiplash as tonal uncertainty; the movie isn’t quite clear how serious it wants to be. It’s absolutely one of those movies where you need to turn off the part of your brain that says things like, “But how often do spies have shoot-outs in Viennese cafes really?” and “Wait but this final plot twist makes no sense, did they just happen to have a robot replica in reserve?”
Fortunately, the viewer is amply compensated for such bobbles by the chemistry between Audrey and Morgan (Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon). McKinnon brings the OTT comedy and the trapeze duel, while Kunis plays the less flashy but equally important role of straight man to the madness. They cheer each other on, they cheer each other up, they chatter themselves through a torture session with a bitter former gymnast: they are the dynamic duo and they take on the world.
There’s also a hot British spy man with a small but attractive scar and loyalties just dubious enough to add an extra frisson to his interactions with Morgan and Audrey, and his even hotter spy boss (played by Gillian Anderson) who accent is as crisp as her skirt suit, on whom Morgan develops a crush so powerful that it practically catapults her out of her chair.
Also a standout: Morgan’s relationship with her parents, who are nearly as zany as she is and totally in her corner even when she tells them that she and Audrey have just killed someone. Well, two someones. Well, they might be up to three at that point, but it was self-defense - “Then that’s fine!” Morgan’s parents heartily assure her, speaking together on the extension.
There is also a moment that I found satisfying for obvious personal reasons where a spy shoots out an espresso hopper and the beans cascade across the floor. Take that, espresso machines of the world!
***
I am happy to report that, although there are only three fics on AO3 so far, they have already covered all the important shipping bases: Morgan/Audrey (great Morgan voice, shows Morgan & Audrey's first meeting, highly recommended: here's a link), Morgan/Audrey/Sebastian, and Morgan/the hot MI6 boss lady, whose name the internet informs me is Wendy.
Actually, I lied. There is a fourth interesting ship, and it is Audrey/Morgan/Morgan’s self-destructive yet powerful unrequited crush on the arousingly terrifying Wendy. But then again I am not sure Morgan is capable of fear, so if there’s any terror going on it’s probably Audrey’s. Maybe she’ll develop a terror-crush on Wendy too?
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