Movie review: A reason to cry U.N.C.L.E.

The film version of  the 1960s TV show stars a couple of bland leading men involved in a second-rate espionage thriller notable mostly for its cool costumes, writes Jay Stone

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Starring: Henry Cavill, Arnie Hammer, Alicia Vikander

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Rating: 2½ stars out of 5

Running time: 116 minutes

 

By Jay Stone

 

The old Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series, which ran from 1964 to 1968, had a low-tech retrograde charm: it was like watching a free version of a James Bond movie, something you’d do only if you couldn’t afford to go to the cinema. All the pieces were there — dashing secret agents, evil villains, plots to destroy the world — but it didn’t really have much zip, unless you count David McCallum’s hip look as Ilya Kuryakin, the Russian half of the U.N.C.L.E. team (the American half, Napoleon Solo, was played by Robert Vaughn, an actor who perfected a look of pursed irritation and never varied it throughout his career.)

 

Now there’s a film version, for some reason, and it captures the same essential flavor of being beside the point. It’s partly second-rate Bond and partly second-rate Mission Impossible: something to fill the time during the long months before the fall movie season.

 

U.N.C.L.E (an acronym for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, in case you’re heading off to trivia night at the bar) is a Cold War spy adventure that has hardly anything at all to do with the Cold War except for some stylish costumes — Mary Quant-inspired skirts for the women; bespoke glen check suits for the men — a nice soundtrack, and some leftover bad guys (Nazis who want to build an A-bomb) from a million bad espionage thrillers.

 

It stars Henry Cavill (the ill-fated Superman reboot) as Napoleon Solo, a former thief who as been drafted by the CIA to foil plots. He likes to work alone, as his name implies, but he’s teamed up with Ilya, here played by Armie Hammer (the ill-fated Lone Ranger reboot) as a tall, sullen communist. They’re both very handsome men — Cavill, especially, looks like an underwear ad — who are armed and dangerously bland, exchanging punchless repartee as they race around Italy in pursuit of justice and stop occasionally to pose.

 

The story starts in a divided Berlin in 1963, but it really has nothing to do with the Cold War or its attitudes: aside from the clothes, it could have been set in Bucharest yesterday. Solo and Kuryakin have to find a guy named Teller — another empty echo of Cold War history — who was “Hitler’s favorite rocket scientist,” which sounds like the most dubious compliment ever accorded a genius.

 

They team up with his daughter Gaby (Alicia Vikander) to hunt the Nazis, taking the occasional time out for a car chase (there’s one cool one through Berlin in which the vehicles run side by side, the first hint that the movie’s heroes have been given equal power) or an elegant soiree where Solo can seduce all the women, not excluding the purring villainess Victoria (Elizabeth Debicki). He’s an elegant chap whose lifestyle is way above his pay grade — “we don’t pay you enough to put truffles in your risotto, Solo,” says his boss, a line that may outlive the film — but it never hits the dizzy heights of the modern spy adventures that travel the world, dangle from airplanes, and add some excitement to their set pieces. The big moment in Man from U.N.C.L.E. is when Ilya beats up some snotty Italians in a bathroom, and it happens off-screen.

 

It was directed by Guy Ritchie, who has fallen on hard creative times since his early films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; RocknRolla). His slam-bang style has been toned down, and now consists of big yellow subtitles — a nice touch for the older film-goer — and a couple of sequences of split screens, a tired but authentically retro convention.

 

It also brings back a familiar face: Hugh Grant, who pops up in the second half of the film, looking like a well-used version of the stammering, flopsy-haired ingénue in which he once specialized. Withal, it’s good to see him back: at least he has a personality.

 

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Review A reason to cry U.N.C.L.E.

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Summary

2.5Score

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: This remake of the 1960s TV show about two spies — one Russian, one American — stars Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, two blandly handsome leading men who bring little to the wan repartee of a B-level Bond spoof. But the costumes are terrific, and if you don't demand much in the way of coherence, it's diverting enough. 2 1/2 stars out of 5 _ Jay Stone

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