Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jude Law, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Raad Rawi, Jessica Chaffin, Sam Richardson, Katie Dippold, Jaime Pacheco, Romain Apelbaum, Rose Byrne, Richard Brake, Steve Bannos, Morena Baccarin, Carlos Ponce, Wil Yun Lee, Bobby Cannavale, Michael McDonald, Julian Miller, Adam Ray, Lukács Bicskey, 50 Cent, Nargis Fakhri, Peter Serafinowicz, Jamie Denbo, Zach Woods.
It takes a lot of hard work to make a film revolving around comedy in America. Far too many times it is so wide of the mark that to even spend time in the cinema to watch it is almost as painful as making your way to a television studio in Britain and watching the same happen there. Yet somehow in amongst the dread, the feeling of nausea that threatens to break through in such cases of dismay, one American comedy has managed to do what its own television counterpart has managed to do for years, make something special and actually really funny. Spying, it seems, hasn’t been this much fun on screen in years.
Spy is the latest film in which the talent of Melissa McCarthy has borne fruit but it seems ever since appearing on screen with Bill Murray in St. Vincent, that undeniable talent has flourished beyond expectation. What arguably helps deliver the laughter is those that surround her in this particular film who are either happy to send up their own screen presence or who capture the very essence of what good comedy is about.
Spy sees a basement jockey agent, beset with the usual problems that infiltrate such a life, no partner, bats in the hair, as well as in the attic, over talkative colleagues and a life sharing other people’s adventures through the computer screen and yet from the death of one particular field operative, this mousy woman takes on the world with renewed determination. The transformation from humble and well meaning intelligence officer to out in the crowd and mouthy hero is not only tremendous to see but the process believable and heartening.
With a great British cast alongside her, including Jason Statham pulling no punches as he gives a performance that is actually watchable from start to finish and the excellent Peter Serafinowicz as the romeo with more wandering hand habits than a troop full of monks putting on a Jazz revival show, Spy really captures the imagination and begs the question of why it is that across the pond they can make exceptionally great television comedy but their films, unless done in an ironic sense, lack substance and grace and the opposite is true here. Of course there are those that always through that bleed through either genre and through either country’s natural output, perhaps for the sake of American big screen comedy, notes should be passed round on where a film like Spy succeeds and Bad Neighbours for example is devoured by its own selfish inadequacies.
Well worth a trip to the cinema, Spy could well be the mainstream comedy of the year.
Ian D. Hall