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James Mottram

2/5 stars
A female-driven spy thriller, The 355 is a globetrotting adventure with an A-list cast and a Z-list script.
Hollywood has got a kick out of ass-kicking action heroines of late, whether it was Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde or the thrilling Ana de Armas in recent James Bond movie No Time to Die. But this jargon-filled tale from Simon Kinberg, a regular writer-director-producer in the X-Men franchise, is as formulaic as it is unconvincing.
The action revolves around a new hi-tech computer drive that can hack into anything. “They get this, they start World War III,” warns Jessica Chastain’s CIA spook Mace, who is sent to Paris to intercept this MacGuffin from their Colombian contact Luis (Édgar Ramírez).


Accompanying her is Nick (Sebastian Stan), a smooth-talking agent who has the hots for her, but the exchange is interrupted by Marie (Diane Kruger), a rival operative from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Agency.
Shoot-outs in the Metro system and on the streets follow, with lives lost and alliances hastily re-formed, as the much-prized gizmo eludes them all.
With Mace and Marie forced to team up, joining them is Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o), a former MI6 agent and computer specialist, and Graciela (Penélope Cruz), a Colombian psychologist who has been sent to Luis’ aid.

A mother-of-two, not really cut out for work in the field, she brings much needed light relief amid the story’s po-faced earnestness.
With the plot skipping from Morocco to Shanghai, local interest is further stirred with the arrival of Fan Bingbing.
In what feels like a fine audition for a future 007 movie, the Chinese star features as Lin Mi Sheng, an impossibly glamorous MSS (Ministry of State Security) agent with her own interest in the drive.
Obvious twists aside, The 355 is nothing more than an excuse to watch these stars fire off machine guns and punch each other into oblivion, with a second half that offers nothing in the way of character development or surprise.

To her credit, the multilingual Kruger, who had already played a Mossad agent in 2019 film The Operative, looks the part; Chastain, whose company Freckle Films is behind the movie, less so. Fantastic actress though she is, she doesn’t have the requisite action chops to truly pull this off.
Having previously worked with Kinberg on his 2019 misfire X-Men: Dark Phoenix, this feels like one Hollywood relationship Chastain would do well to cut short. Just like its title suggests, The 355 is nothing more than a by-the-numbers movie.

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The 355 movie review: Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger lead A-list cast in female-driven spy thriller with a dismal story

(From left) Diane Kruger, Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong’o in a still from The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

Jessica Chastain in a still from The 355 (category TBC), co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg. Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz co-star.

Édgar Ramírez and Penélope Cruz in a still from The 355.

Fan Bingbing (centre) in a still from The 355.

(From left) Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o and Diane Kruger in a still from The 355.

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Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing – despite a stellar cast list, The 355 is as formulaic as it is unconvincing
The action revolves around finding a computer drive that can hack into anything, but it’s all really an excuse to watch the stars fire guns and punch each other


Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger and Penélope Cruz lead an A-list cast (look out for Fan Bingbing) in The 355 – a female-driven spy thriller with a dismal, Z-list story.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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Review | The 355 movie review: Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger lead A-list cast in female-driven spy thriller with a dismal story