THE 355
***
Director: Simon Kinberg
Screenwriters: Theresa Rebeck and Simon Kinberg, from a story by Rebeck.
Principal cast:
Jessica Chastain
Diane Kruger
Penélope Cruz
Lupita Nyong’o
Bingbing Fan
Jason Flemyng
Country: China/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 124 mins.
Australian release date: 13 January 2022.
Charlie’s Angels and Ocean’s 8 were solid platforms for female spies and presumably paid their backers pretty well because the latest incarnation of an all-female James Bond-style movie, The 355, is now on-screen, albeit with a more up-to-date #MeToo stance. In this version, a gang of femmes fatales traverses the globe determined to stop the destruction of the planet via the internet. The son of a drug baron has created an untraceable data key that can take over the ‘net, giving its owner control of absolutely everything - you name it, any digital system can be hacked and commanded - so the device has the potential to bring on Armageddon if it falls into the wrong hands.
After a Colombian agent (Édgar Ramirez) manages to steal the data key from the drug cartel, he sets out to sell it to the highest bidder. Of course, word gets out to the forces of law and order and CIA operative ‘Mace’ Brown (Jessica Chastain) is charged with retrieving the drive but the handover is thwarted by German agent Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger) because, surprise, surprise, the CIA isn’t the only intelligence agency wanting to get its hands on the deadly gadget. What follows is a high-adrenaline foot chase through the streets of Paris before the Colombian disappears again, requiring various national intelligence agencies to cooperate with each other before the bad guys can get their hands on the data key. In the spirit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, this involves the above-mentioned agents of the CIA and the BND joining forces, along with a retired MI6 computer expert, Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), and a Colombian psychologist working for her country’s National Intelligence Directorate, Graciela Rivera (Penélope Cruz). Together, the four women must navigate a world of double-dealing spies and corrupt criminals as they attempt to acquire the lethal contraption, which brings them into the web of the mysterious Lin Mi Sheng (Chinese actress and pop star Bingbing Fan), but is she a friend or a foe?
Simon Kinberg is a seasoned producer but The 355 is only his second feature as director, the first being X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It was on the set of Dark Phoenix that Chastain pitched to him her desire to make a Bondian spy thriller headed by a cast of women and the idea grew from there. With Chastain also attached as producer, it didn’t take long for the project to attract the necessary finance and production commenced in mid-2019. Naturally a film like this needs to be shot in a variety of exotic, picturesque locations and The 355 doesn’t disappoint in that department: it was filmed in Paris, Morocco, London, Washington DC and Shanghai and, for the most part, these countries and cities have been used to the film’s advantage. In addition to the Parisian one, there’s another terrific chase on foot through a crowded Moroccan souk, with adversarial teams of hitmen all vying to get hold of the same target.
The problem with films of this nature is with the suspension of one’s disbelief. Often a protagonist like Bond will land on the other side of the world with next to no luggage, only to turn up at a gala event wearing a sharply pressed tuxedo, but this is acceptable because you know he has a support network somewhere, even if you don’t see it. In The 355, though, this suspension of disbelief is taken to extremes. For example, at one stage the women fly across the world in a stripped-down troop carrier but within minutes of arrival they are sporting beautiful ball-gowns and dripping in high-tech listening devices disguised as sophisticated jewellery. Huh? It’s particularly hard to accept because, at this time, we know they are working rogue and have lost the backing of their governments. We also know that we are expected to treat the film semi-seriously and we’re not in the MCU anymore, Toto. It’s a shame and it’s sloppy and it detracts from the positive parts of the movie. Indeed, it undermines the message of female empowerment that The 355 purports to advance.
Screenwriters: Theresa Rebeck and Simon Kinberg, from a story by Rebeck.
Principal cast:
Jessica Chastain
Diane Kruger
Penélope Cruz
Lupita Nyong’o
Bingbing Fan
Jason Flemyng
Country: China/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 124 mins.
Australian release date: 13 January 2022.
Charlie’s Angels and Ocean’s 8 were solid platforms for female spies and presumably paid their backers pretty well because the latest incarnation of an all-female James Bond-style movie, The 355, is now on-screen, albeit with a more up-to-date #MeToo stance. In this version, a gang of femmes fatales traverses the globe determined to stop the destruction of the planet via the internet. The son of a drug baron has created an untraceable data key that can take over the ‘net, giving its owner control of absolutely everything - you name it, any digital system can be hacked and commanded - so the device has the potential to bring on Armageddon if it falls into the wrong hands.
After a Colombian agent (Édgar Ramirez) manages to steal the data key from the drug cartel, he sets out to sell it to the highest bidder. Of course, word gets out to the forces of law and order and CIA operative ‘Mace’ Brown (Jessica Chastain) is charged with retrieving the drive but the handover is thwarted by German agent Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger) because, surprise, surprise, the CIA isn’t the only intelligence agency wanting to get its hands on the deadly gadget. What follows is a high-adrenaline foot chase through the streets of Paris before the Colombian disappears again, requiring various national intelligence agencies to cooperate with each other before the bad guys can get their hands on the data key. In the spirit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, this involves the above-mentioned agents of the CIA and the BND joining forces, along with a retired MI6 computer expert, Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), and a Colombian psychologist working for her country’s National Intelligence Directorate, Graciela Rivera (Penélope Cruz). Together, the four women must navigate a world of double-dealing spies and corrupt criminals as they attempt to acquire the lethal contraption, which brings them into the web of the mysterious Lin Mi Sheng (Chinese actress and pop star Bingbing Fan), but is she a friend or a foe?
Simon Kinberg is a seasoned producer but The 355 is only his second feature as director, the first being X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It was on the set of Dark Phoenix that Chastain pitched to him her desire to make a Bondian spy thriller headed by a cast of women and the idea grew from there. With Chastain also attached as producer, it didn’t take long for the project to attract the necessary finance and production commenced in mid-2019. Naturally a film like this needs to be shot in a variety of exotic, picturesque locations and The 355 doesn’t disappoint in that department: it was filmed in Paris, Morocco, London, Washington DC and Shanghai and, for the most part, these countries and cities have been used to the film’s advantage. In addition to the Parisian one, there’s another terrific chase on foot through a crowded Moroccan souk, with adversarial teams of hitmen all vying to get hold of the same target.
The problem with films of this nature is with the suspension of one’s disbelief. Often a protagonist like Bond will land on the other side of the world with next to no luggage, only to turn up at a gala event wearing a sharply pressed tuxedo, but this is acceptable because you know he has a support network somewhere, even if you don’t see it. In The 355, though, this suspension of disbelief is taken to extremes. For example, at one stage the women fly across the world in a stripped-down troop carrier but within minutes of arrival they are sporting beautiful ball-gowns and dripping in high-tech listening devices disguised as sophisticated jewellery. Huh? It’s particularly hard to accept because, at this time, we know they are working rogue and have lost the backing of their governments. We also know that we are expected to treat the film semi-seriously and we’re not in the MCU anymore, Toto. It’s a shame and it’s sloppy and it detracts from the positive parts of the movie. Indeed, it undermines the message of female empowerment that The 355 purports to advance.