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'Spy' offers heavy stuff for such light fare
The irrepressibly funny Melissa McCarthy (right) stars as Susan Cooper in Spy
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The irrepressibly funny Melissa McCarthy (right) stars as Susan Cooper in Spy. (Courtesy by Twentieth Century Fox) (right) stars as Susan Cooper in Spy. (Courtesy by Twentieth Century Fox)
The irrepressibly funny Melissa McCarthy (right) stars as Susan Cooper in Spy. (Courtesy by Twentieth Century Fox)
Lovers of funny women should have Paul Feig in their good books.
In 2011, he directed Bridesmaids, followed by 2013's The Heat ' both with female leads, including breakout star Melissa McCarthy.
Now, among the first crop of summer blockbusters comes Spy, an off-kilter action comedy, which he produced, directed and wrote, and which again stars the irrepressibly funny McCarthy.
The opening scene is typical of the spy film genre ' think Eastern European aristocrats mingling under crystal chandeliers in a lakeside mansion ' but in less time than it takes to down a glass of bubbly, Feig gives up the gig and resets the tone with a murder-by-sneeze at the hands of Bradley Fine, a suave CIA agent played by Jude Law. Let the parody begin.
After a few close calls, Fine completes his mission, thanks in no small part to the 'voice in his earpiece' ' Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy). Cooper, or 'Coop' as Fine affectionately calls her, is the brilliant analyst who, from the relative safety of a CIA basement office, guides Fine on his perilous assignments.
Early in the film, Fine and Cooper's quasi-flirtatious banter signal deep mutual affection. Cooper's willingness to do Fine's laundry signals her want of self-esteem. Over drinks with her colleague Nancy (Miranda Hart) we discover a possible source of the dearth: 'Give up on your dreams' is what Cooper's mother wrote in her lunch box as a child. It's a punch line capping off a crescendo of exaggerated aphoristic putdowns. Delivered by McCarthy, it begets both sympathy and laughter.
Narratively, the film follows Susan Cooper as she transforms from gifted but quiescent analyst into intrepid field agent. Thematically, Spy is a character study of a woman who succeeds in a world allergic to the success of her ilk.
Still early in the film, Fine departs from the agency unexpectedly while on assignment to find a 'dangerously compact and transportable bomb'. It's here that Cooper takes her first step toward personal vindication, by volunteering to take on Fine's assignment.
Luckily for her, her dowdy appearance and unobtrusive persona provide the perfect cover. Her superior, Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney), grants the request to the dismay of the male agents gunning for the job.
For the remainder of the film, Feig knocks down all the pins of a spy parody. There's the goofy undercover costumes ('I look like somebody's homophobic aunt,' says Cooper of a particularly frumpy disguise), the absurd gadgets (chloroform masquerading as hemorrhoid wipes, anyone?) and the inept villain, played by Rose Byrne, who also appeared alongside McCarthy in Bridesmaids.
Of course, the quintessential spy spoof also requires the anti-Bond ' and in this case the cocksure agent Rick Ford, played by Jason Statham, fills the part.
His is a fearsome combination of ersatz bravado and reconnaissance incompetence.
And he serves as both foil and catalyst for Cooper's budding talents as an undercover agent. The fact that Statham's acting portfolio brims with muscled action hero characters makes this casting choice scrumptiously meta.
Tropes they may be. Tiresome they are not. And while Spy may be a parody that earns many of its belly laughs from slapstick physical humour and the odd fart joke, Feig manages to keep the plot's twists and turns airtight. Any spy film worth its salt needs a few genuine 'gasp' moments. Spy gives us plenty.
What's more, Spy, which hits theaters here on May 22, succeeds as a comedy while providing yet another convincing counter example to the hoary dictum, 'women can't be funny'. Something this comedy subgenre sorely needs.
In Austin Powers, for instance, the audience is invited to ridicule the casual sexism of the Swinging Sixties as Powers blunders his way through an egalitarian modern world. But in the end he gets the modern girl, and lo, how leggy and buxom is she!
Prior to that, True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, invited its audience to cheer on Curtis's character, Helen, as she transforms from awkward housewife into confident killer.
Incredibly, she takes down the bad guys while attired in the highest of heels and the tiniest of miniskirts.
In Spy, Susan Cooper is 'large' and learns to become unapologetically 'in charge', but never do the jokes revolve around her waistline. Jokes that are made at the expense of Cooper's physical appearance intentionally degrade the teller. Over the course of the film, Feig compels the audience to root for a protagonist that Hollywood commonly treats as the laughing stock.
Gender stereotype busting aside, both sexes will enjoy the raucous jokes delivered by lovable characters, the many fight scenes and the occasional motorbike chase.
At bottom, Spy is a boon to a subgenre that's dominated by male buffoons at whom we laugh for their feckless efforts.
Spy gives us a larger-than-life female protagonist who manages to be both hilarious and vulnerable ' and more importantly, a believable hero. Heavy stuff for such light fare. Kudos to Feig and company for pulling it off.
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Spy
(Twentieth Century Fox, 120 minutes)
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart
Script: Paul Feig
' The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.
