Picoreview: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: Harry Cavill spent a fair bit of the movie wet and dirty. There’s nothing more really needs be said.
Seriously, the whole film could have been unmitigated drek and I may well not have noticed, because Harry Cavill was so incredibly beautiful that I stared at him dumbfounded every moment he was on the screen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie where my jaw just dropped every time somebody came on screen. Usually I get inured to it, y’know, like, “Yes, wow, yessir that is one attractive man, okay, movie now,” but I was staggered every single time Cavill was on screen. And he didn’t even take his clothes off!
Right. Aside from that, it was pleasantly entertaining. Not high art, but a nice romp that they probably could have knocked 10 minutes off without damaging the story, as I thought a few times that it was getting a little long. The costumes were good (Cavill’s suits, dear god. Sharp-dressed man.), and the womens’ hair looked like 1960s hair, not 1960s hair by way of 2015, which pleased me.
I thought Alicia Vikander’s accent was pretty hit and miss, but I liked her as a character and I liked her relationship with Armie Hammer’s rather…sweet, really, giant Russian spy with anger management issues. The script fell down a bit for Hammer, I thought; he got short shrift in comparison to Cavill both in screen time and in general competency, and given that he’s supposed to be the best of the KGB, well. I wanted to see that. He did get more character development than the other two, though, and the musical score for his rage, though, was utterly brilliant.
I would really love to see a second film that played more to his strengths, and to see Vikander as a regular part of the team, but as it turns out the film has been a total and complete flop, which I think is downright tragic. Seriously, everybody should rush out and see it in a desperate attempt to give it legs, because I really did enjoy it thoroughly and I’m sad it hasn’t done well.
And my god, Harry Cavill is beautiful. (“Armie Hammer is good-looking,” my Mom said. “Henry Cavill is *ludicrously* good-looking.” :))