August 8, 2018 2 min to read

The Spy Who Dumped Me

McKinnon is excellent, but sadly the movie around her was about as uninteresting as it gets.

by Zach Saul

Kate McKinnon just can’t catch a break. Her most well-known big screen projects just haven’t been well received. Ghostbusters, Rough Night, Masterminds, Office Christmas Party, and now The Spy Who Dumped Me haven’t been up to snuff. As much of a mess as The Spy Who Dumped Me was, McKinnon is really funny on-screen and without her energy, I’m not sure the audience stays for two hours. I wanted so badly to enjoy The Spy Who Dumped Me because I don’t want Hollywood or the movie-going public to sour on McKinnon’s talent, but sadly, this one was a total dud.

Justin Theroux, Mila Kunis, Hasan Minhaj, and the rest of the supporting cast have pretty poor chemistry together, and none of their allegiances make any sense. The movie’s “quest” centers around Drew’s dying wish – for Kunis to deliver a flash drive containing a back-door to the internet to a mysterious source. Even at the end of the film we never understand any of the details surrounding this transaction. It’s not silly or self-aware enough to stand alongside movies like Austin Powers either, as director Susanna Fogel decides to focus attention on Kunis and Sam Heughan’s uninspiring romance, if you could call it that. The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t on trial for having plot holes, or an unnecessary romance; lots of comedies suffer from these issues. Instead it’s guilty of being without an identity which for a big-screen comedy is a death sentence.

It’s a strange time for comedies in Hollywood right now, because if feels like audiences are demanding something extra from their summer laughs. The “Dramedy” is gaining popularity, (Lady Bird, Blindspotting, The Big Sick) and the slasher-comedy (Game Night, Deadpool etc.) is making a comeback as well. Movies like “Beverly Hills Ninja”, or “Austin Powers” (what I believe The Spy Who Dumped Me aspires to) just don’t get the time of day they might have gotten fifteen years ago. My hope for McKinnon is that studios will stop trying to make movies for her and instead make one with her. A comedian of her caliber and stature doesn’t need to be trotted across Europe, handed guns, and given sequin suits to get people in the door. I’m begging you Hollywood, make the Kate McKinnon “Girls” spoof, or the “Office Space” remake. Wild characters like hers need mundane surroundings to shine, so just point a camera at her, and watch a master work, because she’s talented enough to carry the load.

The Good: McKinnon’s charisma and goofiness are a delight, and I would have rather watched her talking on the phone with her parents than seen the 90 minutes that came after.

The Bad: The movie feels like a patchwork quilt, but not the nice kind your relatives made you out of love. Not funny enough to meet a comedy’s standards, not exciting enough to meet a spy-thriller’s standards, and not sentimental enough to be a rom-com, The Spy Who Dumped Me is a total mess.