An international groups of female secret agents, Mace (Jessica Chastain) of the American CIA, Marie (Diane Kruger) from German BND, Khadijah (Lupita Nyong'o) from the UK MI6, Graciela (Penelope Cruz) from the Colombian DNI, and Lin (Fan Bingbing) from the Chinese MSS, were brought together by circumstance to keep a crucial hard drive containing a top-of-the-line encryption program from getting into the hands of unscrupulous individuals.
There had been several films about female secret agents, many of them starred A-list actresses kicking ass, from Angelina Jolie ("Salt"), Jennifer Lawrence ("Red Sparrow"), Charlize Theron ("Atomic Blonde") to Melissa McCarthy ("Spy"). But it was not so common to see a serious film with several big name actresses banding together as a group of spies. The numerical title "355" was the codename for female spies during the American Revolution
The ladies, all of whom had won their share of acting awards in their careers, figured in ruthlessly bone-crushing yet visually-graceful fight scenes.Three among the ladies of "The 355" have done action films before. Chastain already played CIA agents in "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012) and "Ava" (2020). Kruger had played a former intelligence officer in "The Operative" (2019). Nyong'o had also played a spy of sorts in "Black Panther" (2012).
Playing Mace here added to the diversity of Chastain's roles this year, from "Scenes from a Marriage" to "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," both getting awards buzz. Kruger projected the most machismo in her action sequences. Nyong'o was a standout with her riveting screen presence as the smart and skilled Khadijah. Too bad Fan Bingbing's Li only showed up in Act III, but she certainly made the most of her shorter screen time. Cruz did not get to see much action as Graciela was a psychologist on her first field mission, but she got more acting points.
There were sexist remarks among their male antagonists, like "You were beaten by a bunch of girls..." and I guess these were inevitable for a film like this. Similarly inevitable were scenes of the ladies running and fighting in heels. The plot is admittedly very familiar already, even cliched. However, the chemistry among the women was very good and realistic, which made this globe-trotting action film quite engaging and even fun to watch. 6/10.
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