10 reasons you should go to see The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1. It’s stylish like an ad man’s dream of Europe in the 60s. Sharp suits, fake eyelashes and, my fave, witty subtitles.
2. The music is good.
3. Entertainment value. I was grinning through most of it. (This is probably my favourite Ritchie film.)
4. Cavill and Hamer in suits. (This may be the reason I was excited about this adaptation from the second I heard of it.)
5. The ladies: Gaby is a three dimensional character in her own right and there’s a proper villainess. (Has Alicia Vikander been in a movie a month this year or am I exaggerating?)
6. Its relationship to the original TV series. It isn’t arch and ironic about it without being po-faced at all. It’s kept so much of Solo’s character and I liked the spin on Kuryakin. It’s also refreshing that it’s still set in the sixties.
7. It does a brilliant split-screen montage to zip through a bit that most recent blockbusters would show in gruelling, boring detail. The action is character-driven.
8. Hugh Grant. Very good deployment thereof.
9. Ilya/Gaby. Tropey goodness, yes. The contrast in size really works visually. I was not expecting this relationship to have so much development when I knew this film was going to be about setting Solo and Kuryakin up as spy partners.
10. If you go and see it, the box office will be better and there’s more likelihood of there being a sequel. I would like to see a sequel. Although I do not think the US and UK box office so far have warranted this.
The big reason I say ‘grinning through most of it’ and not ‘throughout’ is being so explicit about torture on people in concentration camps (not that explicit, there were photographs) and using real people’s pain in such a way. I thought it was a mis-step in a film like this.
I admit to being dubious about the flat cap, and although I get why they did it, they shouldn't have used shots from the very last scene chronologically so heavily in promo material.
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