The Spy Who Dumped Me makes smart use of McKinnon's range as a performer and gives her the chance to do everything from (sometimes, bloody) physical comedy to raunchy one-off gags, often while dressed in a pair of suspenders that give her the perfect cartoonish demeanor. Nevertheless, Audrey and Morgan's friendship is the glue that keeps the whole thing together and gives the film some real heart. For that reason, the comedic beats that are dedicated to fleshing out their relationship also tend to be the funniest.Īs was the case with her scene-stealing turns in recent comedies like Ghostbusters and Rough Night (and, of course, her work on SNL), McKinnon is excellent as the off-the-walls zany half of the equation here. Similarly, the actual cloak-and-dagger storyline written by Fogel and David Iserson ( United States of Tara) is pretty by the numbers and its twists and reveals are easy to see coming, ahead of time. However, for the large part, The Spy Who Dumped Me is driven by comedic scenarios and situations that are funny enough in the moment (like a running joke where Europeans always expect Americans to be vapid and destructive), but don't quite manage to create a clear thematic through line or develop the film's characters.
Like Spy, The Spy Who Dumped Me's R rating frees it up to not only deliver more brutal violence, but also serve up darkly funny bits and gags that other studio comedies and/or action films can't get away with. Things settle down a bit once the comedy scenes get started, yet Fogel and her cinematographer Barry Peterson stage the later shoot-outs, chase sequences and fisticuffs with much of the same finesse that Peterson brought to Game Night earlier this year. The movie hits the ground running with an opening that's shot in stylishly desaturated tones and features close-quarter fight choreography and stunts that are more bone-crunching than those in PG-13 movie series like Bourne and Bond. In some ways, The Spy Who Dumped Me is a better showcase for Fogel as an action filmmaker than a comedy director. It thus falls to these two BFFs to figure out who they can trust and make it out of their surprise European "vacation" in one piece. Also hot on their tails are an international team of agents led by one Sebastian Henshaw (Sam Heughan), an enigmatic MI6 employee who claims he just wants to protect Audrey and Morgan from the real bad guys. However, everything changes when Audrey then learns why Drew dumped her to begin with - namely, he's an undercover CIA agent being hunted by some very bad people who are now trying to kill Audrey and Morgan, in their efforts to get to him.īefore they know it, Audrey and Morgan are on a globe-hopping adventure that takes them across Europe, all the while being pursued by arms dealers, assassins, and other criminals trying to get ahold of a mysterious item - handed to them by a desperate Drew for safe-keeping - in their possession. Supported by her eccentric bestie Morgan (Kate McKinnon), Audrey does her best to move on, even after Drew finally reaches out to her, sounding panicked. Mila Kunis stars in The Spy Who Dumped Me as Audrey, a regular 30-year old woman from Los Angeles who is struggling to get over Drew (Justin Theroux): Audrey's now ex-boyfriend who broke up with her almost a year after they first met (on her birthday), with no real explanation. The Spy Who Dumped Me is an enjoyable female buddy romp that delivers sharp action and solid laughs - despite its shortcomings as a spy movie parody. The final result makes for uneven, yet otherwise entertaining summer escapism. While The Spy Who Dumped Me is certainly the comedy its 007-parodying title implies, it's surprisingly committed to being equal parts thrilling and comical, rather than one more than the other. At the same time, the movie succeeds less at satirizing the macho tropes of James Bond and similar espionage franchises (like Paul Feig's Spy does), and more at using those cliches to tell a meaningful story about female friendship, in the vein of writer and director Susanna Fogel's debut film, Life Partners.
The Spy Who Dumped Me is an enjoyable female buddy romp that delivers sharp action and solid laughs - despite its shortcomings as a spy movie parody.