Director: Paul Feig
Genre: Action,Comedy
Starring: Jude Law, Jason Statham
Running Time: 120min
What do you imagine when you think about spys? We usually think about thrilling stories like the James Bond 007 series. And we expect an actor who plays a spy to have a perfect body and charismatic personality. The movie Spy, however, is fresh because it does away with stereotypes.
The main character Susan Cooper, played by Melissa McCarthy, is a CIA agent who does risk assessment and analysis and apprises field agents of danger. Susan and Bradley Pine, played by Jude Law, are fantastic partners. One day, Bradley has an accident on a mission and dies. She is all torn up over the loss of her partner. Then the CIA finds out that the identities of their field agents have been leaked. They have a lead on a suspect, but there is nobody who can go to observe and follow the suspect because of the leak.
Susan volunteers to observe the suspect and hopes to avenge her partner. She is the best person to go because her identity hasn’t been exposed to the enemy. Others strongly oppose this as she is fat and doesn’t have any field experience, but she gets the assignment. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t get a cool or sexy disguise. Instead she gets fake identities that are common for unattractive, overweight middle-aged women: divorced mother of four and unmarried woman with 10 cats. During her mission, the CIA field agent Ford, who strongly opposed her assignment, disrupts her. Ford spends more time excessively describing his abilities and experiences, which is hilarious, than working. Susan even saves him from the main criminal Rayna, while getting close to her to find out her plan.
Why do so many people love Spy? This movie is different from other movies because it has thrilling action and comical themes. One funny element is Ford who is an exaggerated version of every spy cliche. He claims that he is the best spy in this world. He says, “I can swim for five hours with a gunshot wound.”These are some things that gives the movie distinctive charm compared to other spy movies.
First of all, this movie breaks up our lookism prejudice. When we think about spys, we imagine a handsome man like Tom Cruise or a beautiful woman like Scarlett Johansson. But in this movie, the main actor is Melissa McCarthy who is overweight, unattractive and funny playing a character who is very timid. Because of her low self-esteem, she is afraid to go into the field, instead prefering to stay behind and sending her partner intelligence. She fills us with admiration as she copes with disasters in sensible ways, proving she is as competent a spy as the others.
Sometimes we can’t see things clearly because we have stereotypes. This movie breaks up our stereotyped thinking. Perhaps, this is the lesson that this movie gives us. This movie has thrills, fun and lessons. If you are bored with movies in which only cool spies appear, try this movie.
