ATOMIC BLOND

Joining the league of women action figures: “Evelyn Salt” (Angelina Jolie); “Kill Bill” (Uma Thurman); “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (Noomi Rapace/Rooney Mara) and a plethora of others, but none can touch the cool, lethal prowess of “Lorraine Broughton”, an M16 agent seeking justice for a slain cohort in Berlin, 1989, the leak and “list” that led to his murder. Charlize Theron pulverizes, spirals into infinity with her startling, astral performance. Besides her overwhelming beauty, sensational, curvaceous figure it is her intelligence that infuses “Lorraine” with Olympian magmatism; icy Stolichnaya Vodka carouses through impenetrable veins, except for her eyes, she’s emotionless, robotic in her calculated and unplanned kills. Director David Leitch orchestrated a preeminent, thrilling, killing scene, lasting eight minutes (in real time, and Theron sustained authentic damage), it took overwhelming courage and temerity to create this intoxicating, exhilarating sequence.

Theron’s performance transcends every aspect of the film but costars oblige in seasoned performances: James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones;  Eddie Marsan shines in his empathetic depiction of a man with an eidetic memory, holding secrets that all factions covet.

Astutely set in Berlin, as the wall was bludgeoned into oblivion, on November 9th, 1989, intense political jockeying between KGB, French intelligence, British and Stasi operatives; “Atomic Blond” gratuitously injects multitudinous twists, stabbings, sexual titillation to keep, even the most circumspect, engaged.

THREE & 1/2 STARS!!!

Peneflix