Light-hearted entertainer

Johnson Thomas

A reboot of the 60’s spy series popularised by television, this Guy Ritchie film trades on old-fashioned sexiness and fading nostalgia to power it. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is a Cold War light-weight mocktail that has the USA and USSR, the two warring superpowers, setting aside their differences for a combined spy mission. They have specifically come together to stop a rogue group of ex and neo-Nazis from detonating an atom bomb. The plot is obviously old hat and so are the action and thrills, but it’s all presented in Guy Ritchie’s trademark fashion.

The three main players here are the American, Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill), who slips into East Berlin to recruit Gaby (Alicia Vikander), a pretty German car mechanic who has ties to a Nazi bomb-scientist who suddenly disappears. Hot on this trail is the hulking Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), a KGB recruit. To spice-up the action, there’s a chief baddy Victoria (Elizabeth Debicki), a fascist Italian heiress who along with her rogue husband, slinks about looking artfully venomous and coldly captivating.

Cavill and Hammer spark up the old-world narrative with their charm and easy banter. The playful wit is a standard flag-bearer for Ritchie’s films and is effective here too. This may not be a ‘Kingsman’ in terms of spoofy, tongue-in-cheek fun, but it just as well manages to entertain.  Cavill, Armie and Alicia do well to add on their personal charm to the witty, engaging characters they play. Hugh Grant appears to be there for the purpose of lending maturity to the experience. The lively blend of sprightly comedy and sporty action keeps at bay the mendacity of predictable outcomes and flippancy of fractured development. This then is a light-hearted entertainer with no other ambition in mind other than to hit the sequel route to success.