Between Ava, The 355, and the upcoming adaptation of the video game, The Division, if Jessica Chastain wants to rebrand as a star of junky action movies in between all her prestige projects, I would be 100% on board with that. I just hope she gets better movies to serve as action vehicles for her. Which brings us to The 355, which is directed by Simon Kinberg, who co-wrote the film with Theresa Rebeck. It’s an espionage action movie, so you know, it involves some technical thingamajig that can’t fall to the wrong hands or else the world is in trouble, so our heroes have to use their brains and brawn to retrieve the thingamabob before it’s too late and find ourselves in WWIII.
The heroes in this case are a group of women of varying nationalities, all of whom are forced to work together to fight a common enemy. There’s CIA agent, Mace (Jessica Chastain), Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o), Mace’s friend and a former MI6 agent who now works as a cybersecurity specialist, Marie (Diane Kruger), a BND agent, Graciela (Penélope Cruz), a psychologist who works with the DNI, and finally, Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing), who comes in later in the film as a MSS agent.
Thankfully, the film, for the most part, is not the cringey, corporate brand of “Girl Power™,” or the modern #GirlBoss exercise that the marketing might have you believe. The fact that the main characters are women is largely a coincidence, and it takes a fairly mature approach in characterization and the dynamics between each of them. Even the whole connection to the title feels more like an afterthought. Point being, it’s concerns largely lie in being just a straightforward, satisfying spy action film that just so happens to star a group of women, that utilizes their femininity without overcompensating for it, and its statements about being a woman in a world run by toxic men doesn’t come across as self-satisfied.
Unfortunately, as a spy action movie, it kinda blows. It’s not so much that the plot is kinda hackneyed or that there are a number of coincidences and contrivances, or that it’s filled with things that are just plain unrealistic, that is a part of the fun with this particular style of spy thrillers. It really is with the action sequences themselves where this film is truly let down by. Somehow, without fail, all these action scenes are filled with a terrible sense of geography, with no semblance of where each character is at in relation to one another, as if it was all inserts with zero wide shots to establish the location and where everyone is and who is shooting at what. Even the hand-to-hand choreography leaves a bit to be desired, lacking a certain oomph to really make an impact.
Then there’s the whole Fan Bingbing thing, and I don’t know if I’m making something out of nothing because I don’t know about the film’s production, but it would be genuinely shocking to me if there wasn’t something up with. So, basically nearly every shot with Fan Bingbing is her by herself, and the handful of times where she is interacting with the other actors, it’s shot in a way that puts her in a space that is all to herself. I don’t think there’s every any meaningful physical action that she has with the other performers, and even her action scenes are shot and edited in a way that you would only do if you’re trying desperately to hide a stunt double. Maybe the fact that this is her first project since the whole tax evasion thing (just look it up), but either way, it’s one of those things that, once you notice it, you can’t unsee it, and once I saw it, I was thoroughly distracted from the experience.
It’s unfortunate because the actors are all really bringing it, especially Nyong’O and Cruz. Everyone has a distinct personality and bring something different to the table, and I liked that at first, a bunch of these characters do not get along. Much of the first act involves Mace butting heads with Marie until they finally decide to work together. There’s tension with the fact that Graciela isn’t a field agent, so she doesn’t have the kind of experience that the others on the team do. I genuinely thought these were fun characters, and I liked following them, and their evolving dynamics. They deserved a better movie. If there was any weak spots, it would probably be Sebastian Stan, who plays a CIA operative with a thing for Mace. I think he downplays it a bit too much.
So, yeah…I guess 2022’s first big release is a bit of a dud. I wouldn’t call The 355 a terrible movie, but it’s a thoroughly mediocre one, and I can’t imagine remembering much from it after a couple weeks. While Simon Kinberg is by all accounts a pretty cool guy to work with, unlike a former colleague of his, which is why Chastain brought this pitch to him, after Dark Phoenix and this, I don’t really see what he’s bringing to the table. When the action doesn’t work, the writing is forced to carry the film, and while the actors do good work with what they’re given, the material is mostly very bland. There’s even moments in the third act where it feels like there is supposed to be a pause for a cool line or a one-liner, but there’s nothing. Any opportunity to do something cool and interesting is wasted, and as hard as I tried to vibe with it, I just didn’t have fun, and that’s a bummer. Hell, The Spy Who Dumped Me is a remarkably better spy action movie than this, and that film is primarily a comedy – seriously though, check out The Spy Who Dumped Me, it’s a really good movie that a lot of folks slept on. Hopefully, The 355 doesn’t set the tone of the rest of 2022’s releases.
The 355 is now out in theaters.