The 355 (2022) Movie Review
I really wanted to love The 355. The concept has so much potential. The movie begins by showing a weapon that can hack into any computer system on Earth. The weapon is about to fall into the wrong hands when Columbian agent Rojas (Edgar Ramírez) and his team storm the compound and Rojas retrieves it. CIA agent Mace (Jessica Chastain) and Nick (Sebastian Stan) are recruited to facilitate the purchase of said weapon from Rojas. Along the way they encounter fiery German agent Marie (Diane Kruger) who disrupts their mission.
Things go sideways and Rojas entrusts the location of the weapon to Graciela (Penélope Cruz), a psychologist who has no field skills. Meanwhile Mace goes to London to recruit Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) a tech guru to help track down the weapon. Eventually Mace, Khadijah, Marie, and Graciela realize they are all fighting for the same outcome and decide to team up at an auction where the weapon is supposedly being sold.
A team of badass women spies trying to save the world sounds like a winning concept. However, the storyline and character development in The 355 is severely lacking. The quick entry into the story involving the weapon seems like it would work, but instead of being dropped into a fast paced, intense story it feels rushed and not fully developed. Not to mention the “love” story between Mace and Nick feels incredibly forced and too quick to really make you care about them as a couple. The stakes feel hokey and it’s hard to get fully invested.
With four leading ladies, there isn’t enough time devoted to each character. We only get bits and pieces of each person which is only semi-acceptable because each of the actors are so good at what they do. Diane Kruger in particular was a force to be reckoned with as the fierce and fearless Marie. Kruger’s chemistry with Chastain was fun to watch and they provided some of the most memorable banter in the movie. Likewise Cruz was hilarious as the naive and somewhat aloof Graciela who develops some spy know-how along the way. She is obviously the most relatable if you are a civilian and Cruz balanced the line of humor and drama to perfection.
There are a lot of action sequences which admittedly could have been more fun. Director Simon Kinberg seems to struggle with fight scenes. These feel flat and extremely stilted. If you’ve seen X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), which Kinberg also directed, you’ll know what I mean with the similarities. It’s a shame the script and directing couldn’t have been better because this all star cast delivers with their performances. The movie as a whole just never flowed very well. There were too many twists and turns that didn’t give enough of a payoff and you wound up not really caring very much about what happened to the “weapon.” The 355 never really finds its footing but the leading ladies give it their all despite the lackluster storyline.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like spy or heist movies
2. You like female ensemble movies
3. You liked the style of X-Men: Dark Phoenix
