Réalisation:
David LeitchScénario:
Kurt JohnstadPhotographie:
Jonathan SelaMusique:
Tyler BatesActeurs·trices:
Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Roland Møller, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Attila Árpa (plus)VOD (4)
Résumés(1)
L'agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) est une des meilleures espionne du Service de renseignement de Sa Majesté ; à la fois sensuelle et sauvage et prête à déployer toutes ses compétences pour rester en vie durant sa mission impossible. Envoyée seule à Berlin dans le but de livrer un dossier de la plus haute importance dans cette ville au climat instable, elle s'associe avec David Percival (James McAvoy), le chef de station local, et commence alors un jeu d'espions des plus meurtriers. (Universal International FR)
(plus)Vidéo (16)
Critiques (14)
« I fucking love Berlin. » Je signerais cette phrase de mon nom en toute circonstance. D’autant que Berlin joue un rôle central dans ce film. Depuis longtemps, la métropole allemande me fascine par son ambivalence tragique que l’on ressent à chaque pas et qui se prête à merveille en tant que riche canevas pour les œuvres littéraires et cinématographiques. Ma critique se résumera à un seul élément, mais de taille : toutes les scènes les meilleures et les plus intéressantes sont incluses ou évoquées dans les bandes-annonces que j’avais vues des milliers de fois avant le film. Ma critique étant terminée, je dirai que pour ma part, j’ai passé un bon moment et ça faisait longtemps ! Le rôle de Charlize lui va comme un gant, à l'instar de celui de Reeves dans John Wick. L’histoire est peut-être un peu compliquée, mais j’ai bien aimé la fin. Et il est inutile de s’attarder sur la bande-son, qui est très efficace avec ses tubes des années quatre-vingt, même si je trouve que les années quatre-vingt-dix sont généralement quelques crans au-dessus pour le cinéma.
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Two-star trash with one five-star action scene. For an action/spy movie that is supposed to be action-packed and overflowing with information while constantly arousing our curiosity, Atomic Blonde is unusually lame. The fault lies in the film’s uneven rhythm, which is due to the large number of slowed-down scenes that do nothing to advance or enhance the plot, as the characters carry on shallow dialogue about truth, lies and politics, and shots in which Charlize Theron poses in a hotel room lit with blue and red neon (fans of Refn’s films will get their money’s worth). The female protagonist resembles a nicely dressed mannequin or robot that carries out issued instructions (and in the end, it doesn’t really matter who issues them) and occasionally restores her strength in an ice-water bath or with the aid of a shot of vodka (her version of “Martini, shaken, not stirred” is therefore “Stolichnaya on the rocks”). OK, so she’s a cold-as-ice killing machine, but couldn’t that have been conveyed more subtly? The few indications of her humanity and that she has any individuality at all ring hollow (her relationship with Delphine, the slain lover whose photo she burns at the beginning, probably just so the director could kick of the film with Bowie’s “Putting out the Fire”). The narrative is also slowed down by the unnecessary framing with an interrogation in London, visually reminiscent of the interrogation scene from Basic Instinct (there is no crossing of legs, however), which does not build any suspense, arouse curiosity or raise new questions. Toby Jones and John Goodman merely represent the viewers who are slower to understand and sometimes need a break and a summary of what we’ve heard so far. Furthermore, despite the retrospective narrative in the Berlin scenes, the film does not adhere to Lorraine’s perspective. We are also rather senselessly informed of Percival’s activities, so we know his true intentions before the other characters do and the film thus no longer manages to surprise us in this respect. The film’s best action scene is paradoxically the most stylistically restrained one, which doesn’t try to be cool by using slow motion or ’80s songs that work always and everywhere. Only during a several-minute, multi-level brawl on a staircase does the film finally become, at least for a moment, the uncompromising, brutal, badass action flick that the trailer promised. The quality of the stunts, choreography, camerawork and use of the mise-en-scéne (when things go south, even an electric stove comes in handy) makes Atomic Blonde an above-average bit of filmmaking. It is so much above-average that you probably won’t give much thought to the rawer, less stylised approach to the action (compared to the rest of the film) or the meagre contribution of a given sequence to the narrative. David Leitch thus has some great material if he ever needs to convince anyone that he knows how to direct an excellent action scene, but the whole narrative structure around it is so worn-out, dumb, sloppily put together and unbalanced that I would recommend showing up at the cinema about half an hour before the end of the movie. 50%
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(moins)
(plus)
Action goddess Charlize Theron in a spy action thriller. If I were to compare this film to John Wick, Wick is obviously closer to my heart, Atomic Blonde slightly lacks drive and the plot isn't entertaining and gripping enough to glue the viewer to their seat, yet there are scenes that will make me remember it. Definitely worth mentioning are the fights, of which there are quite a few and all of them are properly gritty and perfectly shot (the highlight being a 10 minute action scene in a building culminating in a car chase that had the whole cinema holding their breath). Also nice, especially for men, is Sofia Boutella, who has a passionate fling with Charlize Theron, seeing two beautiful actresses in bed will please any film fan. All in all, an enjoyable action ride that slightly lacks pace and disappoints with a weaker script, but the action makes it definitely worth seeing. 75%
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In the first half it is excessively stylized with randomly used "Best of 80´s soundtrack", while the second half is often without any music and is raw to the bone in a style of Greengrass´ Bourne (and this approach suits the movie much better). On top of that, the screenwriter pretends that it is a serious espionage genre movie almost like Carry with somehow tangled double identities. However, he is not very good at it and it is clear from the very beginning what´s going on and who is the mysterious one who is playing everyone. A rather trivial story is told in an unnecessarily complicated manner. But at least it's not a stupid story. What it relies on is, as expected, mainly all an excellent choreography that results in brilliant physical and stunned action (fortunately it´s not non-stop, but reasonably dosed) with the impressively cool Charlize. You can't deny the movie has its own face, it's definitely not just the proclaimed "Jane Wick". Only that face should have had too much makeup throughout the footage as at the beginning or should have been completely without it as at the end.
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An excess of style sometimes paradoxically results in the absence of style. The film is so saturated with neon EBM fetishism and a fondness of looking at a heroine who is so cold that we can't fully sympathize with her, meaning that it eventually falls apart into a chain of badly connected scenes. A simple story told in a senselessly awkward and ineffective way, and thereby all the pleasure ultimately comes from the little things. And there are about ten minutes of them in the two-hour runtime. I wouldn't even accept that from Dederon.
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