Review: Unlocked

Recently there was not altogether improbable chatter positing Charlize Theron as a female James Bond. Partly this was due to her role as a Cold War agent in Atomic Blonde but, with the undisputed success of Wonder Woman, surely a female spy or action franchise isn't too far in the offing. If Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde are variably solid examples that women can be equally kickass, then the Noomi Rapace-led Unlocked proves that female-driven action films can be as bland and generic as their male-dominated counterparts.

Rapace is CIA operative Alice Racine who, after failing to prevent a terrorist attack in Paris years earlier, has taken herself out of the field. There are broad sketches to her background - a series of foster homes, a rebellious nature that she's managed to funnel into hunting down bad guys - but none of these details convince as much as the casting of the original girl with the dragon tattoo herself. Rapace can be an arresting performer given the right part but, excepting her recent turn as seven sisters in What Happened to Monday, her time in Hollywood has not served her well. One can believe that she possesses the intelligence and kickass moves to be an undercover agent, but Unlocked seems intent on proving the opposite.

Alice is currently deep undercover as a social worker to suss out potential terrorist cells in London. When CIA Langley bureau chief Bob Hunter (John Malkovich) gets wind of an imminent biological attack in London, he assigns the Alice to interrogate a captured courier to find out the recognition protocol in order to track down the mastermind behind the plot. Alice, still guilt-ridden from the Paris attack, is reluctant but her American handler Eric Lasch (Michael Douglas) reminds her that the agency needs her skill set, they need her out of the front lines, and she needs to let the past go before it gets in the way. Once she agrees to the interrogation, what follows is a game of double and triple crosses with Alice racing against the clock to foil a potential massacre whilst trying to figure out who she can and can't trust.

Director Michael Apted keeps things moving along, staging proficient action scenes such as Alice warding off double agents in the confines of a makeshift interrogation room. Rapace does what she can but, for the lead in what could have been a potential franchise, she's easily overshadowed by her starrier co-stars. Neither Douglas nor Malkovich seem to be exerting themselves - they're both clearly slumming, but their personas go a long way in material such as this. Toni Collette as Alice's MI5 contact makes a far stronger case for fronting the film - her character is far more thinly drawn than Rapace's, yet she somehow creates a far stronger, more impressionable character than Rapace does. Orlando Bloom shows up sporting a man bun, tattoos, and a dodgy Cockney accent as a thief who insists on aiding Alice. "I'm useful, and I like trouble," he tells her, adding that his combat training may also come in handy. It's somewhat admirable that Bloom is trying something different at this stage in his career, but he is wholly unconvincing though he at least seems to be relishing the chance to not be an elf amongst hobbits or third fiddle to Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Unlocked

Directed by: Michael Apted

Written by: Peter O'Brien

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Douglas, Toni Collette, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich, Aymen Hamdoushi, Akshay Kumar, Adelayo Adedayo, Tosin Cole