Review: Women in the Forefront of the Action in 'The 355'

"The 355" is the latest action movie directed by Simon Kinberg ("The Martian," "The X-Men" films, "Deadpool" 1 & 2), with a screenplay by Broadway playwright and TV and movie writer Theresa Rebeck ("Dead Accounts," "Seminar and Mauritius") and Kinberg. It stars Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong'o. Male costars Édgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan pick up the slack as (unfortunately, fully-clothed) eye candy.

Agent 355 is the code name given to a female spy who served for the patriots in British-occupied New York City during the Civil War. We know very little about her, but do know that she worked with the Culper Spy Ring, and she operated from 1778 to 1780 to gather sensitive information from the British and their sympathizers. Her true identity is lost to the annals of history.

"The 355" takes this slim tidbit of history and expands it into an action-thriller about international government agents who find themselves working without the aid of their home offices to save the world from Colombian villains. In a twist that will shock the worlds' misogynists, the government agents are highly-capable, highly-trained women!

CIA agent Mason "Mace" Brown (Oscar-nominated actress Chastain) is working a job collecting a hard drive from Bogota when she and her partner are intercepted by German agent Marie (Kruger). The drive is lost to the bad guys. Mace and Marie join forces with former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o) and Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar winner Penélope Cruz). Bingbing Fan ("X-Men: Days of Future Past") plays the mysterious Lin Mi Sheng, a person who may or may not be assisting their mission.

Ramirez and Stan show up occasionally to spice up the dialogue. In a fun turnabout for fair play, their flat characters exist purely to further the story arcs of the women around them. It's a nice change.

"The 355" is what happens when a production company – fed up with all of the fun men get to have while making their action-thriller adventures – takes an average movie script and changes all the pronouns to she/her. They then throw in the Agent 355 Civil War lore as a slim premise, add kick-ass actors to taste, and voila! An action-adventure movie for the ladies.

"The 355" attempts depth with its prepackaged capitalist feminism and international secret agent lady-bonding in London, Paris, Morocco, and Shanghai. It fails. What it succeeds in doing is creating a fun, energy-packed movie that is equal to any male-centric action franchise. No more, but certainly no less.

Action sequences go hard. (At one point in the movie, before the crew has joined forces, Chastain punches Krueger in the face with a frozen fish.) Many of the rock 'em sock 'em scenes copy scenes from male-led action movies. There's even a last stand shootout, reloads and all. The actors kick, punch, run, head butt, shoot, and crawl as stoically as any male secret agent with nothing left to lose. Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong'o do it all in 4" heels and tightly-packed shoulder pads.

"The 355" on DIGITAL AND BLU-RAY, AND PEACOCK FEBRUARY 22, 2022.