The 355is a bafflingly lifeless movie that doesn’t explain its title until the very end, and even then it’s not really clear why writers Simon Kinberg (who also directs) and Theresa Rebeck thought it was fitting. There’s something about Washington’s secret female spy during the Revolutionary War – known as Agent 355 to downplay her gender – but the film itself never capitalizes on that admittedly intriguing premise.
There is nothing in the film to suggest these are anything other than ordinary spies that happen to be female. Rather,The 355is a generic spy thriller that only rises slightly above mediocrity because of its stellar cast. Everything outside of those key female roles - or more specifically, the fact that they can balance action and drama - is totally unremarkable, an unfortunate trend when it comes to January releases.
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Generic spy stuff abounds inThe 355,which features an international group of intelligence agents coming together to stop a Macguffin from getting into the wrong hands. It just so happens that those agents, and a few other non-spies that join the group, are played by prominent female actors. Jessica Chastain leads the troop as Mace, a CIA agent that is unafraid to jump into a shootout or a fistfight at the drop of a hat. Diane Kruger as Marie, a German spy who initially seems like she is on the opposing side to Mace. Mi6 intelligence expert Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) is more or the less the “girl in the chair” for the major field agents, although she gets in the mix from time to time. And then there is Graciela (Penelope Cruz) a Colombian therapist who finds herself unwittingly mixed up in everything and whose sole purpose is to remind the audience she has a family.
With a cast of award winners,The 355seemingly has set itself up to be something different. And to their credit, the female leads do a great job bringing emotion and intensity to dialogue scenes and making the action sequences as believable as possible. The only problem is that those sequences are predicated on absurd setups and punctuated by goofy plot contrivances.
The film establishes that these are top agents in their respective fields and yet many of the action scenes involve mindless shootouts filled with tons of collateral damage and the furthest thing from tact. Chase scene after chase scene starts to wear thin when there isn’t any dynamism to the locations or the choreography. It also takes so long for the “team” to truly form that viewers never get to enjoy watching the group work together as a unit.
Solid acting can only get you so far andThe 355puts too much focus on its plot and its action, both of which are subpar. There is absolutely no surprise to the twists and turns that occur throughout the film – most should see everything far before these “elite agents.” And what might occasionally seem like slick spy fodder is undermined by obvious plot holes or character choices. It’s the type of movie where the “main” good guys and the bad guys continuously let the other get walk away, while every other disposable protagonist or baddie is dispatched with reckless abandon.
Somewhere there is a good movie to be made out of the concept of The 355. Perhaps the sequel will afford the filmmakers the ability to take some risks and get creative with the plot and the action, but even for a one-off this movie is wholly forgettable. Usually, movies like these are disappointing because they waste the talent of one high-profile lead, butThe 355should be ashamed for collecting so much talent and doing nothing with it.
The 355is in theaters now.
The 355
The 355 is a 2022 action flick starring Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, and Bingbing Fan. The Simon Kinberg-directed film centers on a group of female international spies who attempt to stop World War III. Starring among the predominantly female cast are Edgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan.
