The Spy Who Dumped Me is a surprisingly action-packed and often times hilarious spy movie that kicks the butt of any rom-com or ‘Damsel in Distress’ expectations the trailer and the title may have led you to believe.
The story follows Audrey (played by Mila Kunis), a 30-year-old convenience store worker who gets dumped over text by her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux). Within minutes of the film starting it is revealed to Audrey that Drew was actually a CIA Agent – something we all knew, given the title of the film. Audrey and her best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon) have now been roped into a world filled with spies, terrorist threats, explosions and a failed Russian gymnast.
In the last few years the spy genre has experienced a resurgence with films such as The Kingsman franchise and The Man From U.N.C.L.E who, while successfully maintaining the spy elements, also mix in a healthy dose of comedic elements, and it’s alongside these films that The Spy Who Dumped Me should proudly stand. It’s a well-made film, with the stunt team behind some of the Mission Impossible and Bourne films lending a hand and giving the film some serious credibility, filling it with impressive explosions, car chases, shoot outs and even a few grizzly deaths.
Kate McKinnon of SNL and the 2016 all-female Ghostbusters fame is the absolute, hands-down highlight; she’s funny, smart, strong and when it’s needed she’s capable of delivery the emotional performance to make the storyline pack a proper punch. Her performance was incredible but also left me wondering how many of her witty one-liners were ‘Morgan’ and how many were just her.
Having said that, Mila Kunis is no disappointment in this film either. As we saw in Bad Moms she’s completely capable of being really funny and this film allows her to stretch those muscles again; as badass as she looks pointing guns at international spies, she’s equally hilarious running across a European street in a Hawaiian shirt yelling about how she thinks she killed someone and then failing to flee the scene because she can’t drive a manual car (no spoilers, that was definitely in the trailer).
With a run time of 117 minutes, it does unfortunately end up feeling a little long by the time the credits roll, and it’s possible some of the fun action-filled scenes could have been better used tying up some of the loose ends that were left; however, if you’re willing to suspend reality and believe that one solution has fixed all unsolved problems and answered all unanswered questions, then you will be able to leave the cinema feeling relatively satisfied.
All in all, The Spy Who Dumped Me was a really good, surprisingly funny, action-packed film that not only will I buy when it comes out, I might even go see a second time – just to catch the plot twists I missed.
Score: 4/5