The spy film genre is one that is filled with many films that share the exact same tropes throughout: we often see the handsome and debonair man use his wit, cunning and a host of gadgets to track down a villain (usually of a different nationality to our hero) and thwart them, often leaving bodies, damsels and witty asides in their trail.
It is a very easy genre to write stories for – cast a hunk in the lead, surround him with the most desirable women on the planet, insert explosions, insert some product placement, and wait for the millions in ticket sales to roll in. It’s the kind of formula that entire franchises are built upon, but after so many decades there are some things that are getting tiring. The main one is that women are treated about the same as the products advertisers pay to have in these films: like objects they're to only be seen. To help usher the spy films into a new era of balance is the latest film from the pairing of writer/ director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy, the simply titled 'Spy'.
In 'Spy', we are introduced to Bradley Fine (Jude Law), a vain CIA agent who has the confidence and stamina to succeed in missions, but not the intelligence. The real brains is Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy), who sits behind a computer in the terribly unclean offices of the CIA and feeds important information and directions to Bradley through an earpiece. While Susan enjoys working (and flirting) with Bradley, she feels she is in a bit of a rut and like her life isn’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, the technology Susan uses to assist Bradley can only help in so much, with one mission involving the infiltration of Rayna Boyanov’s (Rose Byrne) home going horribly wrong. With Rayna having information on all field agents, Susan volunteers to go out of her comfort zone and undercover to gain information on Rayna and the location of a bomb she is auctioning off to the highest bidder.
The first time Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy teamed up for the hilarious and brilliant 'Bridesmaids', they created a comedy that was simple and had a lot of heart. The follow-up, 'The Heat', tried to inject more action into proceedings, but it didn’t quite work as well. 'Spy' has definitely fixed the kinks that were present in 'The Heat', and even exceeded it. The fight sequences have been made to feel more like physical comedy, which has been performed brilliantly by all of its stars, including McCarthy’s British counterpart and Queen of Physical Comedy Miranda Hart, who plays the wonderfully daft Nancy. Even in some of the most violent sequences (of which there are plenty) McCarthy turns the audiences feelings of shock into laughs just with the maniacal wave of her hands.
One of the biggest highlights, like 'Bridesmaids', is the dialogue. Paul Feig has given all of the actors some wonderfully disturbing lines to work with, filled with the kind of graphic imagery that would make a hard-man like 50 Cent blush (who has a very memorable cameo). The lines become more violent than some of the deaths when McCarthy and Byrne have scenes together and verbally spar, but somehow feel more in jest than vitriol. The casting should also be commended: Jude Law finally being smug in a way that isn’t off-putting; Jason Statham as Rick Ford, an agent who has gone rogue and won’t stop intruding on McCarthy’s mission, satirises his tough guy act; and Rose Byrne being exceptionally horrid and completely deserving of the bad name she is called and can’t be printed here. Melissa McCarthy, however, is the one who truly shines in this show, as rather than being presented as the tough woman who has a few layers, she is given the chance to show off her acting abilities by transitioning from awkward office worker to the sharpest tongue in the production, with a few cat-lady aliases in between.{youtube}ltijEmlyqlg{/youtube}
One of the things I couldn’t help but notice was that Melissa McCarthy’s character seemed to be a subliminal comment on the way women are cast in films. Women are often given lesser roles in films compared to men, and are usually treated horribly by producers. McCarthy’s character constantly being given frumpy cat-lady aliases by the CIA seems like it came from real experiences in her past. In 'Spy', McCarthy has shown why she is far better than the cliché role, exhibiting once again that she is a phenomenal and hilarious actress on her own terms.
★★★★
'Spy' is in cinemas 21 May.
