Mild Spoiler Alert.
Cue the song 'Compared To What', by Roberta Flack. It's 1953. East and West Germany are divided by the Berlin Wall. Suave, star CIA agent, Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill), is sent to East Germany, to get feisty, talented grease monkey Gabby Teller (Alicia Vikander), and bring her to West Germany. Gabby's estranged scientist father, Udo Teller (Christian Berkel), has discovered a way to easily make enriched uranium (the most important ingredient in an atomic bomb), and is feared to be making an atomic bomb for the Nazis.
The CIA hope that she'll help them find her father, so they can stop him from building the bomb (and take his priceless research for themselves). Meanwhile, the KGB have also sent an agent to East Germany, the far less suave, doggedly determined Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), to get Gabby, for the same reasons; finding Udo Teller, stopping him from building the bomb, and acquiring his research. Kuryakin tries to stop Solo from getting away with Gabby, to West Germany, and fails. When the CIA and KGB realise that the threat posed by Udo Teller's building an atomic bomb for the Nazis, is far too big for them to stop, individually, they decide to partner up.
Agents Solo and Kuryakin, who have a seething dislike for one another, are forced to work together. It is discovered that Udo Teller is being held in Rome, by Alexander (Luca Calvani) and Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki), whom Gabby's uncle, Rudi Teller (Sylvester Groth), works for. Gabby is to pretend to her uncle, that Kuryakin is her fiance, so that Kuryakin can get close enough to gather much-needed intelligence. Kuryakin is to play along, and pretend that Gabby is his fiancee. Solo is to pretend to be an art dealer who deals in rare pieces, as the Vinciguerra's are serious art collectors, so that he can win over Victoria, and syphon top secret information from her. The three--Solo, Kuryakin and Teller--go to Rome. So begins their adventure.
When I saw, in the opening credits, that this was a Guy Ritchie film, I was pleasantly surprised. l had no memory of it, from my first viewing, in 2016 or so, because, rather strangely, I hadn't enjoyed this movie, then. I had relegated it to the mediocre heap. One night, this year, 2021, I decided to revisit 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.', just to remind myself why I hadn't liked it the first time. I was pleasantly surprised, again, when I had a ball watching this movie, the second time round. It seems l've changed in the intervening years, since 2016. I am amazed.
At the beginning, when Napoleon is making his way to East Germany, while Roberta Flack's glorious song 'Compared To What', is playing, the footage looks genuinely old, momentarily; it looks convincingly 1950s. I wonder whether that was achieved digitally or practically.
I like the scene when Gabby is trying to break the ice with the Russian spy Illya--swigging wine; dancing, beautifully l must say, to loud music ('Cry To Me' by Solomon Burke); trying to cajole him into dancing with her; tackling him to the ground. It's cute and funny. Vikander is quite endearing here. She's also, at times, beautifully vulnerable. Side note: Alicia Vikander, whom l admire as an actress, seemed to have a less feminine frame, here, than l remembered; her silhouette seemed to be more angular than curvy. American actor Arnie Hammer is believable as quick-tempered Russian spy, lllya Kuryakin; English actor Henry Cavill is believable as suave American spy, Napoleon Solo; there is a palpable irony here.
l don't quite know what to make of Elizabeth Debicki's turn as Victoria Vinciguerra, wife of wealthy heir Alexander Vinciguerra. Oftentimes, I don't know what to make of diva characters; does such a role ask much of a performer? I guess she was adequate. Hugh Grant is quietly charming, as British intelligence officer Waverly.
In a park in West Germany, when Solo and his boss Sanders (Jared Harris), are walking to the men's restroom, Sanders talks about how they, the CIA, labour tirelessly to save the oblivious citizens, from extinction, and receive no thanks. He says, boastfully, "I tell myself, Solo, that inside every Kraut, there's an American trying to get out". This is just one of many witty moments in this film. Also, Solo nicknames Kuryakin, 'Peril', as in 'the Red Peril'; Kuryakin, in turn, nicknames Solo 'Cowboy'; The Cowboy and the Red Peril--it has a nice ring to it.
The music in this is brilliant. Roberta Flack's 'Compared To What' and Nina Simone's 'Take Care of Business', stand out. There are other songs, whose names and artists l don't know yet, that are also notable. Daniel Pemberton's catchy, jazzy score is beautifully elaborate and evocative of the time period. There's a beautiful flute- and drum-based theme, that stands out.
There are two notable moments of exposition. One is when, Solo, Kuryakin and Waverly, are in a helicopter, flying to an aircraft carrier, when Waverly reveals Gabby's affiliation to him, and why she took a course of action that jeopardised Solo and Kuryakin's safety, and mission. Solo then says "Let me translate this into English", and goes on to summarise for us, the audience, rather helpfully, the actual meaning of what Waverly has told them.
The other moment is when Victoria has gotten away with the fully functional bomb that Teller has built, and our heroes are trying to pinpoint the position of her boat, Diadema, through a radio signal. Diadema is contacted via radio, its captain answers the call. Knowing that Victoria would be listening in on the call, Solo is then put on, to trick her into taking the call. He then speaks to her, as a diversion to keep her on the call long enough to pinpoint her position. A missile, synced to the bomb in Victoria's possession, is then launched her way, from the aircraft carrier that Solo and crew are on. Diadema is blown to smithereens, along with Victoria, and the bomb. This series of events is then explained to us, the audience, through a rerun. I thought this was unnecessary, as the sequence of events was pretty straightfoward.
For me, most of this film's appeal isn't in the action, which is passable, but in the beautifully acted, often witty interactions between the characters; it's in the drama. It's also in the Italian setting and language, the costume design, the subtitles, the cinematography; the artiness of it. It plays, quite enjoyably, like an arthouse film and old TV serial, rolled into one. The man referred to in the title, l wonder who he is. Maybe it's Waverly, because as far as I can tell, he brought Solo, Kuryakin and Teller together, to form U.N.C.L.E. Side note: I noticed Solo stealing the Contessa's bracelet, the third time round (by now I've seen the movie twice, since the debut viewing in 2016). There's a certain satisfaction that comes with spotting such details.
It's interesting to see the creative compromises that filmmaker's make to meet the requirements of an age rating, in the case of this film, PG-13. Kuryakin, while defending himself, fatally attacks Alexander, Victoria's husband, with a knife. Interestingly, the knife remains bloodless. I think keeping the knife bloodless, was one of many compromises, that Ritchie and his collaborators made, to keep the film from getting a more restrictive rating, like an 'R', for example. Was it important for us to see blood on the knife? Mmmaybe not.
Having recently watched Ritchie's 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' (2017), the names Lionel Wigram (writer, producer), John Mathieson (cinematographer), and Daniel Pemberton (composer), which appear in the credits of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.', stood out, because the same names also appear in the credits of the 2017 film. People like to work with people that they have a synergy with.
This is the kind of film that you want to watch multiple times.
