The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Some people are suckers for movies with cute dogs, others for movies with little children but, if you are a sucker for movies about truly quirky friendships, The Spy Who Dumped Me is the movie for you. Take your best friend out to watch the movie, hug them and plan your own insane, unrealistic, and almost barbaric, adventure.

The Spy Who Dumped Me follows Audrey (Mila Kunis) and her quirky best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon). The best friends discover that Audrey’s ex-boyfriend, Drew (Justin Theroux), is actually a spy. Due to a series of unfortunate and hilarious events the female duo get dragged into gun shootings, a wild-goose chase around Europe, and an attempt to save the day while staying alive in the process.

The plot is not that inventive; spy loves woman, woman gets dragged into spy world, spy tries to protect woman and then a bunch of expected plot twists, pertaining to who is working with the good guys and who is working with the bad guys, create a constant back and forth. What actually makes this film work, and sets it apart from similar action comedies, is the relationship between Audrey and Morgan. Their friendship is such an absolute in each of their lives; it’s weird, it’s funny, it’s accepting, and it’s wildly entertaining.

The main drawback is the film’s inability to properly develop Audrey and Morgan as individual characters. Indeed, the characters are portrayed in an extremely shallow manner. Yes, we get a very cliché bit about how Audrey never seems to be able to finish anything, and another bit about how Morgan feels constantly judged by people, but these bits go unexplored by the film. Development and depth would have made the dynamic duo much stronger, and their individual characters much more lovable and relatable.

Another issue with this film was the manner in which some of its scenes were edited; many of the scenes were dragged on and on until they lost their comedic spark and swift pace. Moreover, many scenes contained horrendous and exaggerated amounts of unnecessary violence. A last issue with this film is the fact that it crosses the thin line between the sort of hyperbolic comedy that one would expect of a film like this one, and the cartoonish type of comedy that comes off as an amateurish exaggeration.

As for the acting, the applause has to go to Kate McKinnon for proving, once again, that she is a genius. McKinnon was able to take simple lines and turn them into hilarious moments just by a look of an eye or a simple physical gesture. Mila Kunis comes in second place, with a more reserved role, but still a solid performance with an excellent portrayal of emotions (mostly fear). Justin Theroux only appeared in a few scenes, but still managed to adequately play his role. Playing Sebastian, a handsome MI6 spy Audrey’s love interest, Sam Heughan backs up his jaw-dropping good looks with just enough acting skills to give him a pass.

The Spy Who Dumped Me is far from perfect, but you will definitely be surprised, and you will most definitely laugh out loud.