The Spy Who Dumped Me

The Spy Who Dumped Me is a 2018 American black comedy/spy thriller film directed by Susanna Fogel and co-written by Fogel and David Iserson. The film stars Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, and Gillian Anderson and follows two best friends who are chased by assassins through Europe after one of their ex-boyfriends turns out to be a CIA agent. The film was released in the United States on August 3, 2018, by Lionsgate and grossed more than $75 million, while receiving mixed reviews from critics, who questioned the film's intended genre and tone but praised the performances.

The Spy Who Dumped Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySusanna Fogel
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music byTyler Bates
CinematographyBarry Peterson
Edited byJonathan Schwartz
Production
company
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • August 3, 2018 (2018-08-03) (United States)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[2]
Box office$75.3 million[2]

Plot

In Los Angeles, cashier Audrey Stockman spends her birthday upset after being dumped, via text, by her boyfriend Drew. Her best friend and roommate, Morgan, convinces her to burn Drew's things and sends him a text as a heads up. Unbeknownst to Audrey, Drew is a government agent being pursued by men trying to kill him. He promises to return and asks Audrey not to burn his things in the meantime.

At her job, Audrey flirts with a man who asks her to walk him to his car. She is forced into a van. Inside, the man identifies himself as Sebastian Henshaw and states that Drew works for the CIA and has gone missing. Audrey admits talking with Drew the night before, but is allowed to go home. Drew shows up to retrieve his possessions, including a fantasy football trophy. People begin shooting at them and Drew tells Audrey that, if anything happens to him, she must go to a certain café in Vienna, Austria, and turn over the trophy to his contact. Drew is then murdered by a man Morgan had met at the bar the previous night.

Morgan convinces Audrey to do what Drew said, and go to Vienna. At the café, Sebastian appears and demands the trophy at gunpoint. Audrey reluctantly hands it over, before the entire café is attacked. Audrey and Morgan defend themselves and flee, chased by men on motorcycles. Audrey reveals that she still has Drew's trophy, since she switched it with one of several decoys they purchased. They board a train to Prague and discover that the trophy contains a USB flash drive. Morgan calls her parents, who tell her they can stay in Prague with Roger, a family friend.

Audrey and Morgan make it to the apartment, but quickly realize that "Roger" is actually a spy who killed the real Roger. He proceeds to drug the two ladies. Audrey tries to get Morgan to swallow the flash drive. When that fails, Audrey tells their captors that she flushed it down the toilet.

The ladies wake up in an abandoned gymnastics training facility, about to be tortured by Nadedja, a Russian gymnast/model/assassin trained by an older couple who had previously masqueraded as Drew's parents. The couple reveals that Drew was discreetly negotiating with them to sell the flash drive, and Audrey came along as part of his cover. Audrey and Morgan are rescued by Sebastian, who defied orders to save them. He brings them to meet his boss in Paris, where they once again tell the CIA and MI6 that the drive was flushed. The women are given tickets back to America, and Sebastian is placed on leave.

As Sebastian drives the women back to the airport, Audrey confesses that she hid the drive in her vagina. When Sebastian is unable to decrypt the information, Morgan calls Edward Snowden - who had a crush on her when they were kids - and he helps them hack the drive.

The trio travel to a hostel in Amsterdam, where they are attacked by Sebastian's CIA partner Duffer, who wants to sell the drive himself. They are rescued by their hostel roommate, who thinks they are being robbed and body slams Duffer to his death. Audrey responds to a text sent to Duffer's phone and agrees to sell the drive at a private party in Berlin. To get into the party, Audrey and Sebastian disguise themselves as the Canadian ambassador and his wife, while Morgan pretends to be a member of the entertainment acrobatic troupe.

In Berlin, Sebastian is attacked, and Morgan is confronted by Nadedja on an acrobat swing. Morgan eventually kills Nadedja by throwing her onto nearby spikes. Meanwhile, Audrey goes to meet the mysterious contact and discovers Drew, still alive. Drew acts suspiciously and goes through her purse to find the flash drive. Sebastian arrives, being held hostage by Drew's "parents". After a standoff, Drew's "parents" are killed, leaving Sebastian and Drew, who accuse each other of trying to hurt Audrey. Drew then shoots Sebastian, and Audrey pretends to be glad before grabbing Drew's gun. After Drew tries to attack Audrey, Audrey kicks him in the crotch, then he falls to the ground when Morgan throws a cannonball at him. Drew is arrested, and Audrey, Morgan, and Sebastian walk away.

Sebastian later gives Morgan his untraceable phone so she can call her parents to tell them she is alive. While on the phone, Morgan receives a call from Sebastian's boss telling him he is off suspension. Morgan begs her for a job as a spy. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Audrey share a kiss.

A year later, while celebrating Audrey's birthday in Tokyo, her party is revealed to be a ruse. Audrey and Morgan are there on assignment with Sebastian to stop a group of Japanese Yakuza gangsters.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began in Budapest, Hungary in July 2017.[3] Filming also took place in Amsterdam that September, wrapping the same month.[4]

Release

The Spy Who Dumped Me premiered at Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on July 25, 2018.[5] The film was originally scheduled to be released on July 6, 2018, but after "a phenomenal test screening" it was pushed back a month to August 3, 2018, in order to avoid a crowded July frame.[6][7]

Home media

The Spy Who Dumped Me was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 30, 2018 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.[8]

Reception

Box office

The Spy Who Dumped Me grossed $33.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $41.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $75.3 million, against a production budget of $40 million.[2]

In the United States and Canada, The Spy Who Dumped Me was released alongside Christopher Robin, The Darkest Minds and Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 3,111 theaters in its opening weekend.[9] The film made $5 million on its first day, including $950,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $12.4 million, finishing third at the box office, behind holdover Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Christopher Robin.[10] It fell 45% to $6.6 million in its second weekend, finishing sixth.[11]

Critical response

At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 49% based on 203 reviews, with an average rating of 5.32/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Spy Who Dumped Me isn't the funniest or most inventive spy comedy, but Kate McKinnon remains as compulsively watchable as ever".[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 3 out of 5 stars.[10]

Variety's Owen Gleiberman praised McKinnon's performance but criticized the film for favoring violence over comedy, writing, "The Spy Who Dumped Me is no debacle, but it's an over-the-top and weirdly combustible entertainment, a movie that can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a light comedy caper or a top-heavy exercise in B-movie mega-violence."[14] Barbara VanDenburgh of The Arizona Republic called the film "a tonally incongruous, plodding and graphically violent comedy" and gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, saying: "Perhaps the problem isn't one of too little ambition, but of too much. The Spy Who Dumped Me is, after all, trying earnestly to be about half a dozen different things: a buddy comedy, a spy drama, a raunch fest, a thrilling action film. It's just that it doesn't have the focus to do any of those things particularly well".[15] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers criticized the film, rating it 2 out of 5 stars. He stated that the film "spends way too much time on car chases, shootouts, knife fights and R-rated violence that doesn't square with the film's comic agenda" and also commented that "The Spy Who Dumped Me isn't just painfully unfunny—it criminally wastes the comic talents of Kate McKinnon".[16]

Richard Brody of The New Yorker praised the film, stating, "Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon riff gleefully in the ample and precise framework of Susanna Fogel's effervescent action comedy",[17] while Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times also gave it a positive review, writing, "The Spy Who Dumped Me [is] a fast, funny Europe-trotting buddy caper".[18] Johnny Oleksinski of The New York Post opined it was nice to see McKinnon used properly in a film, and that Kunis was the ideal straight woman, calling the two a smart match.[19]

Accolades
Awards Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
People's Choice Awards November 11, 2018 Favorite Comedy Movie The Spy Who Dumped Me Won [20]
Favorite Comedic Movie Actress Mila Kunis Nominated

References
  1. "The Spy Who Dumped Me". AMC Theatres. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  2. "The Spy Who Dumped Me". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  3. Shanahan, Mark (July 17, 2017). "New Novel and Big Movie Keep Susanna Fogel Busy". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  4. Daniels, Nia (June 2, 2017). "Multiple European locations for The Spy Who Dumped Me". KFTV. Media Business Insight. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
  5. McNary, Dave (July 26, 2018). "Kate McKinnon, Mila Kunis Consider Being Secret Agents at 'Spy Who Dumped Me' Premiere". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  6. N'Duka, Amanda (April 28, 2017). "Lionsgate Dates Mila Kunis-Kate McKinnon Comedy 'The Spy Who Dumped Me' for Summer 2018 Release". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  7. D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 22, 2017). "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' Heads To August, 'Madea Family Funeral' To Be Held In Fall". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  8. Bradley, Dan (September 10, 2018). "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' 4K, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Release Dates and Details". The HDRoom. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  9. Rubin, Rebecca (August 1, 2018). "Box Office: Can Disney's 'Christopher Robin' Top 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout'?". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  10. D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 5, 2018). "'Mission' Notches Best 2nd Weekend For Franchise With $35M; 'Christopher Robin' No Eeyore With $25M – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  11. D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 12, 2018). "August Audiences Get Hooked On 'Meg' Shelling Out $44.5M". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  12. "The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  13. "The Spy Who Dumped Me Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  14. Gleiberman, Owen (July 26, 2018). "Film Review: 'The Spy Who Dumped Me'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  15. VanDenburgh, Barbara (July 27, 2018). "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' review: Graphic violence, comedy don't mix". The Arizona Republic. Gannett Company. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  16. Travers, Peter (July 30, 2018). "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' Review: D.O.A. Comedy Does Kate McKinnon No Favors". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  17. Brody, Richard (August 3, 2018). "The Spy Who Dumped Me". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
  18. Chang, Justin (August 3, 2018). "The Spy Who Dumped Me". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
  19. Oleksinski, Johnny (August 1, 2018). "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' is a secret-agent spoof that doesn't suck". The New York Post. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  20. "People's Choice Awards 2018". People's Choice Awards. Retrieved September 26, 2018.
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