The Man From Uncle: 5 Mistakes That Seriously Damage The Movie

4. The Characters Are One-Dimensional

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is not the sort of movie that you'd expect to feature extremely complex and intricate characters (though why the hell not, right?), but the players in Guy Richtie's latest film are really, super paper thin. They're like moist kitchen towel thin. Yes, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin get backstories, but said backstories are never probed into or explored in an interesting way; instead, they're just flat-out stated like cold information attained from a top secret dossier (which is exactly the way in which they are stated, actually, and none of it ever goes any further than that - go figure). The best that the film can do in terms of "personalities" is give Kuryakin one of those generic blockbuster traits; this time, it's the one that means he has a sentimental watch that his shamed father once gave to him, so we're supposed to think that makes him complex. Napoleon Solo, on the other hand, doesn't even get a watch-like personality trait: he stays exactly the same from the first scene to the very last; he's essentially a robot man. Alicia Vikander's Gaby Teller doesn't fare much better; she's a stereotypical movie tomboy - direct, on the nose, less-trained but somehow more capable than the men. "Oh, look," the film tells us. "She's sexy and she's good with cars." And that's the extent of her personality, really; the weirdest thing of all is that her mechanic skills are never even utilised.