A review of the new Netflix offering “The 355”
I’m all in favour of female action figures and there’s some thespian talent in this espionage thriller, but this is a thinly-plotted effort that all too obviously is contrived to appeal to the widest possible audience on television screens.So we have no less than a quintet of leading actresses: Jessica Chastain for American viewers, Diane Kruger for European viewers, Bingbing Fan for Chinese viewers, Lupita Nyong’o for black viewers, and Penélope Cruz for Latino viewers.
American Theresa Rebeck is responsible for the story and co-writer of the script which has the female five chasing a small device that can hack and control any part of the Internet and any electronic network (yeh ….) while racing around exotic locations ranging from Morocco to China (actually Taiwan).
It is a non-stop smorgasbord of running, fighting and shooting with twist after twist, making it something of a bubblegum movie, sweet and chewy but instantly forgettable. And only an American would come up with the contrived title which is a reference to Agent 355, the codename of an unidentified female spy who fought for the Patriots during the American Revolution.