Wingwomen Review: Bonded in Action

Alex (Adèle Exarchopoulos) returns to her rented villa the morning after an exciting night of roller skating and having sex with not one, but two attractive men. She curls up next to her closest friend Carole (Mélanie Laurent). "What happened to you?" exclaims Carole as she takes one glance at Alex's face, which is completely bruised on one side and has wounds on her lip and eyebrow. "It's no big deal," Alex responds in a bland tone, adding, "I'll tell you later." They switch to another topic. Alex never tells her to come back." Is it really "no big deal" to return home after a hook-up with open wounds as well as bruises? 

Wingwomen Review

In Laurent's "Wingwomen," it makes sense. It's also humorous, and the entire movie is full of with these kinds of humour—soft, relationship-based, unexpected humour. There aren't any overt or apparent "jokes." It's the way friends often make each other laugh, their impromptu chuckles and the way you never have to explain anything. The action-packed heist movie "Wingwomen," which is based on the graphic novel The Grand Odalisque by Jérôme Mulot, Florent Ruppert and Bastien Vivès makes enough of room for the most significant aspect of the story: the relationship between Carole and Alex.

Action and adventure combined with buddy humour is a popular genre that appeals mostly to guys. There are a handful of fairly well known unusual values, "Thelma and Louise" being the most prominent. "Wingwomen" isn't like a self aware, self important course correction where two "badass" chicks kick ass together. Carole and Alex are both skilled and sometimes brutal killers. However, "Wingwomen" is in some respects subtle, even nuanced, showing a very real connection within the context of a ridiculously implausible scenario.

Professional thieves Carole and Alex work for the legendary Isabelle Adjani, whom they eerily refer to as "Godmother," after she took them in from the streets and put them to work. Carole is the sly front-line robber, while Alex is a master marksman. They are deeply involved in each other's life, arguing over groceries and offering each other personal therapy. (In the first scene, Alex blabbers about her dismal love life and propensity to fall for the wrong man as they avoid hostile drones and jump from a cliff.) However, things are evolving. Both of the women desire to leave their hazardous lives behind. Their godmother will not let them go lightly. If they betrayed her, she would murder them.

Antoine Roch's camera work beautifully captures the stunning views of the Mediterranean coast as Sam speeds on her motorbike through winding roads along the Italian coast. Every person they encounter is a bit quirky, and each one has surprising qualities. In an interesting interview with Variety, Laurent discussed her efforts to avoid common stereotypes, especially when depicting friendships among women. In action films, there's a trend to portray women as tough and flawless, but Laurent wanted her characters in "Wingwomen" to be more real. They could smoke, enjoy wine and have fun when they weren't kicking butt. She described it as a 'rock 'n' roll' French touch, something you rarely see in American action movies. Laurent pointed out that filmmakers sometimes limit themselves to appeal to a broad audience, and she believes it's a freedom they embrace in their film.

Wingwomen Cast

Character	Actor
Alex	Adèle Exarchopoulos
Carole	Mélanie Laurent
Sam	Manon Bresch
Marraine/Godmother	Isabelle Adjani
Clarence	Félix Moati
Abner	Philippe Katerine

Wingwomen Rating, Reviews and Director

Director: Mélanie Laurent

Writers: Mélanie Laurent, Christophe Deslandes and Cédric Anger

Running Time: 1h 56m

IMDb Rating: 5.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71% on Tomatometer

 

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