The Spy Who Dumped Me Review: Great Stunts, Predictable Story

The Spy Who Dumped Me review: a buddy comedy with real action

The Spy Who Dumped Me was directed by Susanna Fogel, who wrote the screenplay with David Iserson, and Lionsgate released it in the United States on August 3, 2018. It runs 117 minutes. Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins produced it for Imagine Entertainment and Bron Studios. The story follows Audrey, played by Mila Kunis, and her best friend Morgan, played by Kate McKinnon, who get pulled into a global conspiracy after Audrey's ex-boyfriend turns out to be a CIA agent on the run.

On paper this is a high-concept spy comedy, and the review's central complaint is that it plays exactly like one. The setup is familiar, the beats arrive on time and the plot follows a path an audience can chart from the first act. The review called the film enjoyable but forgettable, and that is the fairest short description of it. What the film does well it does loudly, and what it does by the book it does without surprise.

The review scored the film on four things. First, the story: a competent, high-concept outline that never leaves the template. Second, the action: choreographed with care and violent enough to be memorable. Third, the leads: a friendship that reads as real and a comic performance from McKinnon that lifts every scene she is in. Fourth, the editing choices, which for the review meant the flashbacks that interrupt the pacing. The first and fourth drag the film down, and the second and third hold it up, so the final take is a qualified recommendation.

A short note on tone before the plot. The movie mixes bone-breaking action with broad humor, including gross-out jokes, and it asks the audience to accept both in the same scene. Some viewers will find that bracing. Others will find it uneven. The review noted that critics split on exactly this point, and it is worth deciding in advance which side you are on.

The premise and the first act

Audrey turns 30 as a grocery-store worker with no clear future, recently ghosted by her boyfriend Drew, played by Justin Theroux. Morgan, an unfiltered and loyal best friend, is the person who keeps her going. Audrey gets by on her love of shooter videogames and on Morgan's support, and the review treated the opening as a quick, efficient portrait of two people stuck at a crossroads.

The inciting incident is the breakup itself. Drew returns to Audrey's life with a team of assassins on his trail and reveals the real reason he left: he is a CIA agent. He hands her a device that has to get from one place to another, and the mission passes to the two friends. The review noted, dryly, that Audrey of course accepts.

Act two and the travelogue

Act two is where the film delivers its premise. The pair travel across European cities pretending to be spies, learning the job as they go, with the usual run of chases, fights and conveniently timed exposition. Filming took place in Amsterdam, Berlin and Budapest between July and September 2017, and the locations give the middle of the film a polished postcard look.

The review described this stretch as everything the audience paid to see: pretty locations, large action set pieces and a romance that appears when it is needed. It also complained that the rules of the spy world are explained in a handy way whenever the plot requires them, which is a common weakness of the genre and one this film does not escape.

Act three and the formula

The third act follows the genre template. Not everything is as it seems, the twists are easy to predict and the heroines prove they have learned enough to win. The review summed it up as a very Hollywood spy movie, and said that apart from avoiding spoilers, there is little to add: the film does not leave its formula.

One structural choice drew sharper criticism. Flashbacks showing Audrey and Drew's relationship are dropped into the film to build backstory, and the review felt they were forced and unnecessary, more like scenes from earlier drafts than material that suited the pacing. The relationship they depict is the weakest part of the movie, and the flashbacks only draw attention to it.

Stunts, Vienna and the reason to watch

The film's best argument for itself is the action. The review credited the stunt coordinator Gary Powell, known for work on the Bond and Bourne franchises, with directing the action sequences, and described them as surprisingly high in quality: violent in an over-the-top way without becoming gruesome. The sequences set in Vienna stood out, especially a café fight and a chase across the city in which people are stuck on top of cars.

Susanna Fogel has said she wanted the action to be as fearless as the action in a male-driven film and not softened. That intention shows on screen. If you want a comedy with fights that look dangerous, this movie delivers more than most.

The comedy and the tone problem

Comedy is where the film is most uneven. Kate McKinnon's scenes work because she is given space to improvise, and the review credited her with a wide comic range. The rest of the humor leans on gross-out gags and bodily jokes, and the review felt these crowded out Mila Kunis's character arc. Audrey grows over the course of the story, but the growth is easier to describe than to feel.

The tone also swings from scene to scene. A fight can end in a punchline, and a punchline can turn into a fight, and the movie never settles on a register. For some viewers this is the charm. For others it is a sign that the film is unsure whether it wants to be an action film or a comedy, which is the same point the review raised about sub-genre.

The genre question

The review spent a section on the film's sub-genre, because many critics were surprised by how violent it is. Some viewers expected a campier, more parodic spy spoof in the vein of Get Smart. What they got was closer to an action film in the mold of John Wick, which the review noted was an inspiration. That mismatch muddles the marketing: is this an action movie or a female-driven comedy?

The review linked this to a larger point about labeling. Calling a film female-driven can open the door to franchises, as Wonder Woman and Bridesmaids suggest, but it can also narrow the audience a studio reaches. Fogel has argued in an essay for Glamour magazine that the label risks marking women's films as the exception and nudging studios to market them to women only. The review quoted her, and the point is a sound one.

The Spy Who Dumped Me: cast, crew and release facts

Figures as listed in the Wikipedia article on the film.

The cast: who works and who does not

Kate McKinnon is the film's best asset, and the review said so without hedging. Her one-liners, her physical comedy and her room to improvise, including scenes with Kunis that feel like genuine play between friends, carry the comedy. The review credited the director with leaving her space, and the results show up in the scenes that last longer than the script needed.

Mila Kunis has the harder job. The review thought her character suffered from lead-character blandness: not whiny, but not given much to do other than react. Audrey's arc of growth and independence is clear on paper and was, in the review's view, lost in the gross-out gags and violence. Kunis and McKinnon, though, are believable as old friends, and the review praised the absence of the catty rivalry that buddy comedies often fall back on. These two support each other, which is a pleasure to watch.

Sam Heughan, known from Outlander, plays Sebastian Henshaw, a polished and slightly stiff MI6 agent, and the review found him charming while pointing out that the role is mostly eye candy. Justin Theroux was, in the review's opinion, unlikable as Drew, with an odd split between caring and cold that tipped too easily toward cold. Ivanna Sakhno made a memorable impression as Nadedja, an Eastern European gymnast turned assassin, and the gymnast detail that seems forced for most of the film pays off in the final act.

Casting is, in the end, why the film stays watchable. Spy comedies live or die by whether the audience believes the leads would survive an afternoon together, and this one passes. The review noted that buddy comedies often set two opposite characters against each other, while Kunis and McKinnon play friends who back each other up. That choice is quietly unusual, and it gives the film a warmth that a more cynical script would have lost.

The film also shows how much a cast can do with a script that offers little new. Even in thin scenes, the leads look like they are enjoying one another, and the supporting players, including Hasan Minhaj and Jane Curtin, get small moments that land. A viewer does not need to love the plot to enjoy the company.

Gillian Anderson plays the head of the spy organization, and the review called her delightful but brief and underused, there mostly to give McKinnon's character an authority figure to admire. The supporting list also includes Jane Curtin, Hasan Minhaj, Fred Melamed and Lolly Adefope.

Reception, box office and verdict

Critics were divided, and the divide was about expectations as much as quality. The film holds a 49 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 208 reviews, with an average score of 5.3 out of 10, and a Metacritic score of 52 out of 100 from 43 critics, which that site describes as mixed or average. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a B. That fits the review's position almost exactly: some people liked the action and the leads, others found the script too routine.

At the box office, the film made $75.3 million worldwide against a reported $40 million budget, with $33.6 million from the United States and Canada and $41.7 million from other territories. Those numbers are from the film's Wikipedia entry, and they describe a modest return and not a breakout hit. There has been no sequel announced at the time of this update, and nothing in the film's Wikipedia article suggests one.

The review's final take is brief: watch it if you like popcorn movies and predictable spy stories, enjoy the action sequences, and appreciate the chemistry between Kunis and McKinnon, with McKinnon's comic timing standing above everything else. That is still the right advice. The film will not change your mind about the genre, and the flashbacks and formula keep it from being more than it is. It does, however, show that a female-led action comedy can deliver real stunts and a believable friendship in the same film.

A few things the film gets right deserve repeating. It lets two women be best friends for two hours without turning the friendship into a plot hurdle. It stages action in real locations with practical-looking stunts. And it gives a comic actor, McKinnon, the room to shape the movie around her timing. None of that rescues a predictable plot, but each of those choices is the reason people still recommend the film to friends who like the genre.

There is a fair question about how the film would land today. Action comedies with women at the center are more common than they were in 2018, and a viewer coming to this one now may find its formula more familiar and its stunt work more impressive by comparison. The friendship at its core travels best. The jokes about spy tradecraft and the plot devices that move the characters around Europe are the parts most likely to feel dated.

What it gets wrong is just as clear. The villain's scheme is thin, the romance feels like an obligation, and the flashbacks interrupt a story that is moving well. A tighter script would have made the stunts feel earned instead of detached from the plot. The review's phrase, enjoyable yet negligible, is a good summary of that trade-off.

Streaming availability for the film changes from month to month and varies by country, so check a current listing before planning a night around it. It is also sold and rented on the major digital stores.

If you are choosing between this and a different spy comedy, the choice comes down to what you want. For bone-crunching set pieces and a friendship that feels real, this is a decent evening. For a tightly plotted parody, look elsewhere.

Sources

• The Spy Who Dumped Me, Wikipedia — Credits, release, budget, box office and critical reception