The 355: Film Review
Jessica Chastain noticed a gap in the market and came up with the idea for an all-female ensemble action movie and the result is The 355, which is sadly more average than I would have liked.
Chastain stars as Mason ‘Mace’ Browne, a CIA agent who is assigned to retrieve a dangerous drive from a Colombian agent named Luis (Edgar Ramirez) in Paris. However, when the mission goes wrong and one of her colleagues is killed, Mace is taken off the case. To avenge the death of her friend, she decides to strike out on her own and find the drive herself. She teams up with MI6 cyberintelligence agent Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) and rival German agent Marie (Diane Kruger), while Luis’ therapist Graciela (Penelope Cruz) is forced to come along for the ride.
Given the women involved and the fact it’s an all-female ensemble action movie, I wanted The 355 to be better than it is. It’s not terrible and I enjoyed certain sequences, but I thought it was very average and uninspired – just like a lot of action movies starring men! I thought the plot was quite weak and contrived and it sticks too faithfully to the action rulebook. Also, the reason for protecting the precious drive was vague for a long time so I struggled to care about it.
The film eventually found its footing and got better towards the end; the women felt like a proper team and there were some cool action moments. They worked really well together and it was nice to see actresses in their late 30s or early 40s in these roles. I would have liked more laughs and more depth to the characters, but I enjoyed how it subverted the trope of a woman’s death giving the male hero motivation for revenge.
My favourite character was Graciela, who is caught up in the action despite being a self-proclaimed “normal person”. She was a fish-out-of-water, the audience surrogate and the funniest as she is vulnerable and scared about what they need to do. It was refreshing to see a team that isn’t just made up of unemotional action robots. Kruger’s character comes close to that; she’s very frosty and a bit of a loner.
Nyong’o’s character had a practical, diplomatic attitude, a casual sense of style and was the most-needed member of the team. I wasn’t convinced by her British accent 100% but it was pretty good. I particularly enjoyed her saying “Bloody hell”! Fan Bingbing isn’t in this as much as I expected but she made her mark in a short period of time. Her character Lin Mi Sheng is polished and calm and excellent at fighting with a makeshift staff.
In comparison to the others, Chastain’s character is quite bland as the bog-standard capable agent type we’ve seen plenty of times before. However, after watching her in tons and tons of dramas, it was fun to see her kicking butt in an action role (I’m gonna forget Ava, as we all should) and she was a strong lead for the team.
Although I wasn’t completely sold on The 355, I would happily watch a sequel because I feel like it found its identity towards the end and is primed for another round.
In cinemas Friday 7th January