The 355 - Theatrical Review

Film producer Simon Kinberg and actress Jessica Chastain first started talking about this concept of a Mission Impossible meet James Bond with a women-led cast while working on X-Men: Dark Phoenix. A couple of years later, Chastain and Kinberg got Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o, Penelope Cruz, Sebastian Stan, Fan Bingbing, and Edgar Ramirez to join the cast. But Kinberg doesn't have a great track record directing, and neither does his co-writer Theresa Rebeck (Catwoman, Law & Order: Criminal Intent). The two wrote The 355 and instead of navigating the web of international spies, the film instead goes through a "by-the-book" recipe for espionage thrillers with zero twists or turns.

There are glimpses of how fun the cast could have with each other as they all sit around a table taking shots and talking about how they first got into the business of the spy world, but it only lasts for a couple of seconds and it's serious from then on. Not even the cheesy one-liners felt genuine. The 355 is a code name to a real-life woman operative from a couple of hundred years ago and now follows Mason Browne (Chastain), an agent who has a penchant for martial arts and doing the right thing, along with her agent partner Nick (Stan). They are tasked with finding a piece of technology that will basically destroy the world and everyone living if it gets into the wrong hands. Mason enlists the help of an MI6 friend (Nyong'o), a German operative (Kruger), and a brilliant Colombian psychologist (Cruz) who team up and try and save the world.

Now on a cat and mouse game people who were once friends are now enemies and yadda yadda. The issue at hand is that these elements should be surprising and exciting, but they are neither in The 355. With the exception of some decent fight choreography with Diane Kruger and Jessica Chastain that prove they still have the physical power to take out any villain - man or woman - the story sticks with surface-level material that never connects character's bond with each other to the audience in a way that's engaging and entertaining, let alone inspires sequels. Some of the backstories have great potential, but there is no follow-through or fluid dynamics to relate to any of the characters. They even mention 007 James Bond in this movie, and even by all his over-the-top antics, he still seems more plausible and real than any of these characters.

There just needed to be more to the concept of badass women coming together and realizing their potential in fighting the bad guys together instead of going rogue. A martial arts sequence inside a meat locker with meat hooks is stunning. It's those little nuances that make The 355 good. Another good element was the music by Junkie XL (Mad Max: Fury Road). The up-tempo tracks and booming bass really ups the ante in every action scene perfectly here and is one of the more memorable aspects of the film. The script though and the heavy editing does nobody any justice and come across as a less-than-thrilling or fun spy film to say nothing of the anti-climatic final fight. Welcome to January movies. The 355 has some good things going for it, but in the end, this spy thriller will be forgotten, and that's a shame too because its cast and premise are out of this world amazing. Worth A Look. 

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