This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Stood Up
Plot Overview
Vilnius, Lithuania: Drew (Justin Theroux) is digging into some sushi—he calls it Japanese food—when the place erupts into pool hall violence. He hightails it out of there and retrieves one of his passports from a stash.
Meanwhile in the states Audrey Stockman (Mila Kunis) is celebrating her birthday with her best friend Morgan Freeman (Kate McKinnon) who wonders, “Where's your boyfriend?” Audrey checks her texts to find she finally got an update from his earlier, “U have to move on.” He's going to be “Back tomorrow.” He wants to pick up his stuff.
Morgan suggests she burn it all. They go through it and chide him in absentia about his 2nd Place Fantasy Football trophy. It wasn't even real football. No, but it's not a real trophy either, but a MacGuffin that furthers the plot as various characters try to acquire it, some through violent means. Drew told her to take care of it for him.
A customer named Sebastian (Sam Heughan) at the Organic Geoff's food outlet where Audrey works informs her he's with British MI-6 and that Drew is actually a spy for the CIA. Now that Audrey is onto his game, she and Morgan can play it, too, and for amateurs they acquit themselves well.
Ideology
Through various shenanigans they eventually
meet up with the spy boss, one Tess Baker (Lolly Adefope.) Audrey
is impressed that their boss is a woman who exudes an
aura of power while still maintaining her femininity. The tension
between these two roles is like that seen in Tami Hoag's nineties
woman: “She would never have said she defined herself by
her job. It wasn't who she was, it was what she did. But without
the frame of reference it provided, she felt lost. And with the feeling
of loss came guilt. She wasn't only a doctor; she was a mother. Her
children needed her. Why could she not define herself in those
terms? ¶“The curse of the nineties woman, she thought,
struggling for a sense of humor. A futile struggle” (243.) Among
Christians the responsibility falls to older women to instruct the younger
in the domestic sphere: (Titus 2:3-4)
“That the aged ... women ... may teach the young women
… to love their husbands, to love their children.” Learning
how to relate to men should include not summarily dumping a boyfriend
of a year through sending a text message, but making an actual date
with him so he can find closure. The good practice of the women should
be picked up by the men; that way they learn indirectly without
anyone's femininity or masculinity being compromised.
There being a dearth of good female role models nowadays we can always look to scripture for guidance. In the movie “Say Anything,” some recent high school grads defined a date as “prearrangement, with the possibility of love.” The Book of Esther shows the origin of dating when Queen Esther made a lunch date with the king. Prearrangement resulted in a plan change when the king unable to sleep the night before had some court records read to him and so was kept from a folly. The possibility of love was represented when the king's right hand man Haman tried to bond with Esther at the lunch date to get her to intercede on his behalf. Thus a date embodies the two greatest commandments: to love God with all one's being giving him opportunity to intercede in our affairs by our prearranging the meeting, and physically bonding with one's date to best understand him or her and treat him with love of neighbor.
In TSWDM the two did manage a (biblical) date to sort matters out. The prearrangement was Drew asking Audrey to meet him in Vienna at 11:00 a.m. the following day at Café Sheila and ask for Verne. At this point Drew was taken out of the picture (“Do svidaniya”) but Sebastian showed up and some bad guys. The resulting chase around Europe enabled Audrey to pick up a fair amount of spycraft so that when she eventually connected with Drew, she would be a walking refutation of his earlier lack of confidence in her ability to handle his kind of life. The couple's embrace enabled Audrey to resolve some trust issues concerning Drew who had led her to believe his job was working on an NPR podcast specializing in jazz & economics. The story thus demonstrates that a date is a viable negotiating venue able to handle major conflicts. Trying to do so unilaterally by a text message is a cop out and doesn't even work very well.
Production Values
This spy spoof, “” was directed by Susanna Fogel. It was written by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson. Cast includes Justin Theroux, Blanka Györfi-Tóth, and Vilma Szécsi. The two leads Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon had good chemistry together playing best friends convincingly. The entire cast did a great job.
MPAA rated it R for violence, language throughout, some crude sexual material and graphic nudity. It was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. The action scenes live up to what one could expect in a real spy movie. The spoofing isn't overplayed but hits home. The comedy is a mix; some of it is bound to grab you. The scenery is all over the place.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
This was one hilarious spy spoof send up. We weren't troubled by a whole lot of plot, just spies everywhere and who knew whose side they were on? It was easy to watch and laugh at. Well done.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age Video Occasion: Good Date Movie Special effects: Well done special effects Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Hoag, Tami. Guilty as Sin. New York: Bantam Books, 1996. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org