GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.2/5)
Rated: M
Directed by: Simon Kinberg
Written by: Theresa Rebeck, Simon Kinberg
Produced by: Jessica Chastain, Kelly Carmichael, Simon Kinberg
Executive Producer: Richard Hewitt
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramírez.
‘They get this? They start WWIII,’ says ex MI6 agent Khadija (Lupita Nyong’o).
And by ‘this’, she means the bad people out there getting hold of an intricate set of algorithms designed to unlock any system, in other words: a totally untraceable Master Key.
The CIA wants it, the BND (German intelligence service) wants it. And roped into the desperate search for this potential world changing weapon are former MI6 agent, Khadija (Lupita Nyong’o) and Colombian psychologist Graciela (Penélope Cruz).
The chase crosses the globe from Paris to Morocco to Shanghai as the agents fight against each other to then be forced to work together because as Khadija says, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’
The 355 is more action than espionage as each side fights for the prize.
There’re some jumps and very near misses that ramp up the tension with visceral moments like hearing that small crack as a rib gets broken.
The storyline dabbles in the drama of these strong female leads: CIA agent, Mason Brown (Jessica Chastain) AKA Mace a loner, Graciela the out-of-her-depth psychologist wanting to get back to her family, Khadija making a go of a normal life, Chinese agent Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan) and German agent Marie (Diane Kruger) the ultimate badass and designated by the team as the one that’s the most messed up.
Director and writer Simon Kinberg (along with fellow writer Theresa Rebeck) skirts the line of working with the all-female cast without getting too girly.
Mace likens herself to James Bond but is reminded he always ends up alone. So, the characters are given some depth in between all the hand-to-hand combat.
But there’re no real surprises here.
Yes, there’s some twists in the plot but the suspense fizzed when all the characters came into play, so the focus was more about the interaction than the tension of the story.
And I didn’t quite believe in this Master Key.
There’s still plenty of knife fights and shoot-ups and bombs exploding but the mystery fell away. The rawness that had me in the beginning faded making The 355 an average action flick worth a watch without getting too excited about it.
