After the first 10 minutes of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” I began to worry that my trepidations about seeing the movie were well-founded. The exposition, if you could call it that, went by at the pace of the Indianapolis 500. Pertinent information about the characters was delivered awkwardly, sandwiched in between breathless chase and action sequences that were stupidly stopped dead for the purpose of enlightening the audience as to who the characters are. To judge from the first few minutes, the movie was destined to be forgotten as soon as I was done reviewing it.
Fortunately, my trepidations were unfounded, though I still believe I was right to be critical at first. To be sure, the movie pays for that poor exposition in its second act, which seems as though it were written for a movie that had an exposition that did a more efficient job of making us both knowledgeable and sympathetic to the film’s colorful cast of characters.
Despite the rushed exposition, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” comes through on the strength of those same colorful characters, whose quirks and mismatched personalities offset the film’s narrative deficiencies.
The film is set in the early 1960s at a moment in history when the Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR probably seemed like it might thaw. Coincidentally, it’s at this very moment that a group of Nazi terrorists have managed to develop a more efficient and time-saving process of developing nuclear warheads. On this issue, if on no other, the CIA and the KGB have a common interest. The CIA pairs its best agent, the smart-aleck, oddball art thief turned spy Napoleon Solo, played by Henry Cavill, with fierce and ill-humored KGB agent Illya Kuryakin, played by Armie Hammer in an effort to find and eliminate the Nazis’ nuclear capabilities. Their natural antagonism isn’t helped by the fact they spent the first 10 minutes of the film trying to kill each other.
The mismatched coupling of Solo and Kuryakin drives the film’s plot and places it much more within the genre of screwball comedy than that of the spy film. In the case of “U.N.C.L.E.,” the unwilling alliance of the spies replaces the battle of the sexes typically seen in the screwball film and is advanced by the fact that Cavill and Hammer commit entirely to their characters’ tumultuous chemistry. An extended cast of talents, each playing a character more colorful than the last, help Cavill and Hammer along.
Character development, rather than narrative progression, drives “U.N.C.L.E.,” and the film succeeds best when the screenwriters allow themselves — and the actors — to go free in the unfettered pursuit of character development.
There are far too many to make an exhaustive list, but I feel it necessary to single out Hugh Grant’s performance as a hilariously wry British MI6 agent who turns out to be a few steps ahead of the spies and Sylvester Groth’s turn as a sadistic, Mengele-inspired Nazi war criminal. Groth in particular is given a golden opportunity to play a character whose importance to the plot is slight but whose longest and best scene would leave a gaping hole in the film if it were trimmed for time.
Needless to say, “U.N.C.L.E.,” probably doesn’t deserve any awards come Oscar season. But it has earned a potential second viewing from me, if only to reacquaint myself with these wonderfully drawn personalities.
Seth Hickey
