Review of The 355 (2022) by Markhreviews — 12 Jan 2022

At the 2015 Critics Choice Awards, Jessica Chastain offered an impassioned speech about the lack of roles for women in Hollywood. Deciding to put her money where her mouth is, Chastain founded Freckle Films (see what she did there?!). “The 355” is the first film released by her production company.

At many levels, it would be gratifying to be able to describe this initial effort as an unqualified success. After all, when the cast includes Chastain (as CIA agent Mace), Diane Kruger (“Inglourious Basterds,” TV’s “The Bridge”), Lupito Nyong’o (Oscar for “12 Years a Slave”) and Penelope Cruz (Oscar for “Vicky Christina Barcelona”) as sisters in arms, they could probably draw a crowd by reading random entries from a cook book. Unfortunately, the script for “The 355” is a half-baked recipe for tedium. Chastain, Kruger and Nyong’o - agents of the CIA, Germany’s BND intelligence service and Britain’s MI-6, respectively - band together to save the world from imminent disaster. Penelope Cruz – a spy therapist – goes along to provide psychological support. They all come together because a Colombian miscreant has created a computer drive that can backdoor any encrypted device in the world (gasp!). What if this tool falls into the wrong hands? And so on….

The action sequences and general derring-do are quite serviceable (particularly when compared to Roger Moore’s arthritic James Bond). Like so many spy thrillers, the script relies a little too heavily on implausible plot twists. And here, Act I is quite slow to establish the main characters and their interrelationship. At points, some of the clichés invoked are oppressive: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” could apply both to the agents’ captive and, unfortunately, to the captive audience for this caper. (Spoiler: the scriptwriters chose the hard way.).

The conclusion suggests that this film clearly hopes to start a franchise. I hope so, too. The core actors are wonderful. The bending of gender stereotypes has real potential (being a female spy who has to call in each evening to check on the kids is just great fun). Future installments would benefit from a more thoughtful script, a seasoned action-film director and a little less self-seriousness. Take a look at Ana de Armas’ role in “No Time To Die” – she’s self-deprecating, believable and clearly having a great time – then go and do thou likewise.