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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Stay away from ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’

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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Official Facebook Page

It might be tempting to spend the night with “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” as it is attractive, stylish and has a great soundtrack.

But the experience won’t be satisfying.

This slapdash movie throws its scrambled narrative into the viewer’s lap and expects them to do all of the work to figure it out. Neither director Guy Ritchie nor co-writer Lionel Wigram seem to care if the audience is on the same page with them by the end of the film.

The movie opens with slick title cards jiving under the smooth jazz beat of Roberta Flack’s “Compared to What,” setting up a fun retro vibe. Newspaper clippings and stock footage suggest we are in America amid the throes of the Cold War. But there’s a twist: the CIA and KGB have brought together their finest agents – Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) – and forced them to set aside their differences for the greater good.

Ritchie frequently employs the ironic contrast between an upbeat score and heavy violence. In one memorable moment, Napoleon sits safely inside a truck parked at a dock while henchmen chase after and shoot at Illya. Napoleon then finds a fresh sandwich in a picnic basket in the truck and calmly eats while the chaos in front of him unfolds to the tune of an Italian pop song. The scene is easily the film’s funniest. But even though “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” sometimes made me laugh, it frequently left me disappointed.

The begrudging CIA and KGB partners are on a mission to stop Nazi sympathizers from building nuclear weapons. That premise might sound simple enough, but the plot is absurdly difficult to follow. The film rushes through incessant action scenes without stopping to catch its breath and explain what’s going on. Ritchie and Wigram do lay out basic details, but such slivers of information quickly get lost in the frenzy. The filmmakers are poor communicators because, like these secret agents, they prefer gunfire to dialogue.

When “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” does decide to sit down and talk, it reveals a knotted mess of relationships. The movie hinges on the connection between auto mechanic Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander), her father, Udo (Christian Berkel), and her uncle, Rudi (Sylvester Groth). Rudi works for Victoria (Elizabeth Debicki), the aforementioned Nazi supporter who wants Udo to build nukes for her so she can destroy something (I’m still not sure what). Add to this that Gaby has her own complicated motives and it’s noticeable how tracking the story becomes difficult.

As if the sloppy structure wasn’t bad enough, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” also subscribes to abysmal gender politics. There are at least six men with major speaking roles in this movie, and their characters all have complete, if predictable, arcs. The women, however, get short shrift, since Ritchie opts to use them as sexual objects instead of flesh them out as human beings. Gaby (the female lead) gradually falls for Illya while posing as his fiancée for the mission, and Victoria (the film’s antagonist) inexplicably sleeps with Napoleon. A third woman – the only other female character with several lines – appears topless after she gets out of Napoleon’s bed early in the film (she is listed merely as “Desk Clerk” in the credits). None of the men in the cast ever show any skin.

One might argue that “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” engages with early 60s sexism for historical accuracy. I would counter that perpetuating reductive character dynamics is unnecessary for a film that takes place in a fictional version of history, and especially needless for a work released in 2015. This film is, unfortunately, a reminder that degrading treatment of women is still happening some 50 years on. It’s especially disheartening to see a talent like Alicia Vikander wasted on such a diminutive part. Her last big role –in this past spring’s “Ex Machina” – was a significant step forward for feminist filmmaking. “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” feels like a step back.

Even when Ritchie focuses on action – his ostensible forte – “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” crumbles. Frenetic camerawork makes the escalating conflict mostly incomprehensible. Tracking people and vehicles through chase scenes becomes impossible until everything enters the same frame. Comic strip-style montages hastily plow through combat sequences without trying to keep the viewer in sync with what’s happening. Piercing noises accompany rough visual transitions as editor James Herbert attempts to complement the film’s hurried ending.

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” builds up and sputters out three times in its final 20 minutes. None of those mini-climaxes are particularly satisfying, frustrating rather than arousing my interest in the subject matter. The film’s lazy storytelling approach is far more concerned with reaching its own finish than with providing any sort of narrative closure. Ritchie tries to use superficial charm to overcompensate for a weak plot and falls flat.

The movie’s throwback aesthetic makes it look old, but its regressive gender stereotypes make it feel archaic.

Nathan Frontiero can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @NathanFrontiero.

Correction: In a previous version of this story, a description of a scene had two characters reversed. Napoleon sits safety in a truck while Illya is pursued. It has since been corrected. 

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  • F

    FritzSep 15, 2015 at 10:06 am

    This review misses the mark in oh, so many ways… The Man from U.N.C.L.E. film was a blast, a fun, retro, 1960’s spy romp that nicely captured the tone of the original series. As a matter of fact, this film is very much like watching a new episode of the old TV series, with a much bigger budget, better staging,blocking and direction, and bigger action scenes.

    As Rob notes above, it appears the reviewer didn’t even pay enough attention to the film to get the main characters names straight, so I’m not surprised he was confused by the pretty straightforward plot.

    I’m also struck by the reviewer’s characterization of the two female leads as ” sexual objects instead of flesh(ing) them out as human beings”. While the film definitely uses the male gaze, Gaby (Alicia Vikander) is actually pretty well developed – any skimping on her characterization in the first half of the film is completely explained by the story later. Gaby’s attraction to Illya is clearly mutual, and I found it pretty endearing that two such prickly individuals came to care for each other. The villainous Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki) got shorter shrift, but sufficient for her role, and it was pretty clear that she was in charge during her sexual encounter with Solo. I suppose if I went into every film looking to be outraged by gender stereotyping or sexual political incorrectness, I might focus only on the things in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that supported my viewpoint, too… but to then simultaneously hail the male gaze-heavy Ex Machina (which I enjoyed as well) as some kind of feminist masterpiece is ludicrous.

    Don’t worry, Rob – this is a reviewer for the UMass student paper, and not to be taken too seriously. It sounds like he may be trying to impress a girl with this review ;’)

    Reply
  • M

    MariaSep 15, 2015 at 8:45 am

    You got all the character wrong. Sorry but most people enjoyed the movie.

    Reply
  • B

    Bob NodzoSep 15, 2015 at 7:51 am

    Obvious, who ever, wrote this review, appears to be clueless who was who in the movie. So how closely was he watching?

    Reply
  • R

    RobSep 14, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    You got it wrong. It was Solo in the truck and Illya being chased.

    When you review movies and can’t even get a basic fact straight, it really makes you look like an idiot.

    They actually allow you to review movies ???

    Reply