By Elizabeth Zakaim
Managing Editor
I spent a lot of this summer in a cool, dimly lit movie theater, and I honestly don’t regret it. But out of all the movies I saw these past couple of months, I’d have to say that “The Spy Who Dumped Me” was by far the funniest. Between the hilarious (and good-looking) cast, the beautiful setting and the exhilarating plot, “the Spy Who Dumped Me” puts a funny twist on what would otherwise be your run-of-the-mill spy thriller.
We first meet Audrey (Mila Kunis), a sarcastic but somewhat diffident cashier still agonizing over her ex-boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux), who dumped her over a text message after they dated for a year. Kate McKinnon plays Morgan, Audrey’s theatrical and quirky best friend who tries to cheer her up, and whose general character carries most of the comedy behind the film.
Morgan tries to help her forget about Drew, but neither Morgan nor Audrey know the reasons yet behind Drew’s slapdash text – he’s a spy on the run who just didn’t have enough time to come break up with her in person and who wanted to keep her out of harm’s way.
But it’s not long before Audrey becomes entangled in Drew’s spy world. She and Morgan travel to Vienna to try to track down a flash drive that he later begs her to find, and that the CIA has been trying to get from Drew, their former fellow agent. Neither we nor Audrey know who to trust with whatever information that flash drive holds – the handsome, cunning CIA agents or Drew, the flighty ex- boyfriend.
What made the movie funny was its unconventionality – two suburban 30-somethings thrust into the role of makeshift CIA spies is pretty hilarious – like when Audrey turns her blinker on in the middle of a car chase, or when Morgan tries to girl-talk with a trained assassin.
McKinnon is funnier in this movie than she is in most of her Saturday Night Live sketches. Kunis never disappoints, and we get to have the pleasure of watching Sam Heughan (who plays another CIA agent, Sebastian) be charming and lighthearted, which is refreshing after seeing him exude so much serious drama in his TV series, “Outlander.”
The movie gets in your head too – you really don’t know who Audrey should trust with that flash drive. She can’t trust the CIA just because they’re CIA, and even Morgan, with all of her singular wisdom, can’t help her friend find the right answer. You’ll be bouncing back and forth between the perceived good guys and bad guys too, but you’ll soon realize that you just have to leave it to Audrey to get over herself and figure it out.
