matrixschmatrix wrote:
First and foremost, the way the other woman is killed off was really gross- I knew they were going to do it, but to have a lesbian character strangled in a very sexualized way while in her underwear is a level of gross way beyond what just shooting her would have been. It doesn't really make any sense, and feels like they just wanted to find someone to fridge so it felt appropriately downer-ish, which is also not great, but the specific way it was executed felt nasty in a way that was way beyond what this movie- which seemed to think it was a lot deeper than the John Wick esque joys of it could bear- could ever buy back.
I don't know, at least they allowed her the ability to fight back, and used that fighting back to make McAvoy look ridiculous, so that he didn't come out of it looking like a strong, triumphant whatever. It took place in an oddly sexualized position, but it was
she who stabbed
him, as indeed it turns out she provides all the material to bury his reputation later.
matrixschmatrix wrote:
Also, the twist was really stupid- like, the big gotcha is that you think she's working for the West, when actually... she's working for a DIFFERENT country in the West! Wow! It also requires that you sincerely buy into a bunch of Reaganist cliches about the Cold War and the Soviets (she's fighting for freedom, just like the CIA in 1989 definitely was!), but I kind of expected that. But honestly, if you're going to bother with a twist, you might as well have one that actually means anything- as is, it just makes the British look incredibly stupid, since they were obsessed with hunting down a mole who was evidently only passing bad intel along to the Soviets. Shouldn't they know the mole wasn't doing any harm?
It's weird that you think this movie requires a sincere
anything. This is more a riff on a certain kind of spy movie than a sincere example of it. Part of doing such a riff involves using a political situation that doesn't need anyone to feel one way or the other about anymore (tho' the DDR police state deserves what ugly things can be said about it). Most especially because, like many spy films from around the time of reunification, the real bad guys are the ones conspiring to foil reunification and keep the divisions alive for their own personal gain, not the main governments of this or that nation.