Although poignant and reflective the 2010 French film The Big Picture, originally titled L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie - The man who wanted to live his life, is a psychological thriller full of subtle psychology and empty of thrills. Blink once and you may miss the entire point of this introspective piece. 

The Big Picture stars French actor Romain Duris as Paul Exben, a successful Parisian lawyer with two perfect children, house and wife. The seemingly perfect life. However, it’s more nuanced than that. Director/writer Eric Lartigau (A Ticket to Space, La Famille Bélier) makes it complicated, as life is. Things are not so black and white. From the first interaction between Paul and his wife Sarah, played by Marina Foïs, it’s clear he’s completely oblivious to her unhappiness. This is the flaw he must overcome - his narcissism. 

Later, upon the news of his partner’s incurable and fatal diagnosis, Paul receives a call from Sarah and the two meet at a cafe where Sarah tries to communicate her troubles. Distracted from the morning’s news, Paul brushes off her struggles with her writing career and the two fight. Sarah feels trapped by the house, children and feels rejected both from her husband and the writing community. They agree to talk that night. However, that talk never happens and after only a few sips of wine Paul and Sarah have sex - Paul is completely oblivious to the fact that Sarah is detached from the entire experience, going through the motions - playing the role of the good and complacent wife.

After a few distant and tense interactions with his wife Paul eventually concludes that Sarah is having an affair. Instead of confronting her, or talking about their marital issues he gets drunk at a dinner party and teases her about writing, humiliating her in front of all their friends. This is the last straw for Sarah and she asks for a divorce. Again, Paul makes the wrong move. He confronts her lover, an arrogant trust fund bohemian, trying to be a photographer, Grégoire Kremer played by Eric Ruf. This is particularly sore for Paul as he himself gave up his dream of being a photographer to become a lawyer and live, ‘the good life’ - a stable life. As Kremer insults him, encouraging a fight, Paul finally snaps, breaking a bottle over Kremer’s head. After Kremer throws Paul and himself to the ground, he lands on some broken bottle and dies from the bloody wound in his neck. 

Knowing the only way to avoid arrest and a public scandal, Paul runs from responsibility once again. He disposes of the body, settles things with his firm, fakes his own death, assumes Kremer’s identity, and moves to what appears to be a small village in Montenegro. He spends one last afternoon with his children before driving away, watching a confused and concerned Sarah in the rearview window. 

Despite its flashy comic book style aesthetics, captivating fight scenes, and impressive physical performance from Charlize Theron as British spy Lorraine Broughton, Atomic Blonde (2017) suffers from the classic ‘all style no substance’. Unfortunately it’s bogged down by unsympathetic characters and disjointed plot. But there are two elements that the film does quite well in providing both style and substance: the use of lighting and the execution of action sequences.

Based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde centres around Lorraine Broughton, a spy tasked with retrieving the names of the double agents who will be crossing into the West during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This is the political backdrop of the film. Director David Leitch constantly reminds the audience that they are in the 80s with dramatic spray painted graphics, a killer soundtrack full of reimagined 80s hit songs and neon upon neon. 

The look Leitch and cinematographer Johnathan Sela (collaborators with Chad Stahelski on 2014’s John Wick) create hinges off of the punchy comic book aesthetic and the 80s love of neon. The neon lighting in Atomic Blonde is era appropriate but also symbolic. Each character is doused in their own colored lighting. Lorraine drowning in blue, Jame McAvoy’s eccentric MI6 character David Percival always with a saturated green and the sensual French spy, Delphine Lasalle played by Sofia Boutella, in a captivating red. These colours represent the cold, detached demeanour of Lorraine, the greed of Percival and the romance of Lasalle. The interiors drenched in saturated light pair well with the depressing and drab exterior colour grading, perhaps symbolizing the contrast between the excessive partying of the 80s and the political turmoil of Germany at that time. Albeit cool looking, the neon lighting ends up feeling overused, losing its lustre halfway through the film. 

More important than the hidden symbolism of colour in Atomic Blonde, is the action. It’s the action that makes you appreciate this movie. The sequences are expertly choreographed, executed and shot. They are a clear jump into the new era of cinematic action choreography brought on by Leitch, Sela and Stahelski from John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves. 

It’s refreshing to see more fight sequences break free from the shaky, over-cut action inspired by Doug Liman’s The Bourne Identity (2002). The smooth dance between actors and camera has become a staple of Leitch and he leaves the audience captivated by every move and bloody blow.

Not only is the action fresh, it’s believable. Theron was very adamant on creating choreography that a woman would actually, and could actually execute. Not only that but her character gets beat up. Really beat up. At one point you think to yourself, “Jeeze. Stop. This is too much.” Which is fantastic. Each blow seems harrowing to our protagonist, raising the stakes as the next bad guy in a never ending stream of bad guys rounds the corner. It’s a testimate to Lorraine’s perseverance and strength. 

Does the above make Lorraine anymore less dangerous or the action sequences any less interesting? No. Arguably her cleverness and sneakiness make Lorraine more lethal and the sequences more interesting. Lorraine uses her environment to win a fight. Nothing about a man being stabbed in the neck with a stiletto heel sounds boring. Atomic Blonde takes both The Bourne Identiy’s iconic pen stabbing scene and John Wick’s gun-fu action to a terrifyingly “lady-like” place.

Watch a clip of the action below in the film’s Stairwell Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XarGS1AeEcE

Is there a deeper, profound meaning underneath the hood of Atomic Blonde? Not really. But it’s a fun flick and a step in the right direction in creating believable female action heroes who are just as dangerous as the male ones. And for their own reasons. If you go into Atomic Blonde wanting an overly stylistic portrayal of a chilly female spy breaking the bones of bad guys in unexpected ways, the film delivers. Just don’t expect to be moved emotionally by the experience.

Like the Atomic Blonde soundtrack? Have a listen to HEALTH’s cover of Blue Monday by New Order, made specifically for the film: