Mary Elizabeth Winstead almost makes routine "Kate" more than just serviceable

Kate (2021)


As a revenge thriller about an assassin on that dreaded One Last Job, “Kate” is pretty routine. As an action vehicle for Mary Elizabeth Winstead, it’s slightly more impressive. As film critic Roger Ebert once said, “it’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it,” and “Kate” tries occasionally to camouflage a derivative script (written by Umair Aleem) with a bold visual style and bloody, skillfully staged action set-pieces. Split the difference and “Kate” is a perfectly fine ride, as long as the general familiarity and foregone-conclusion plot curveballs don’t kill the momentum. 


Coming off “Birds of Prey,” where she held her own in the action, the always-reliable Mary Elizabeth Winstead gets a much-deserved leading role here as Kate. Trained to fight and kill since childhood by mentor and handler Verrick (Woody Harrelson), she is a highly-skilled assassin who hasn’t missed a shot in 12 years. On a mission in Osaka, Japan, Kate is just about to take out her target, who turns out to have a teenage daughter by his side; Kate hesitates at first before taking the shot. Ten months later during her stay in Tokyo, she is nearing closer to choosing retirement and having a normal life of no killing. Of course, she agrees to take one last job — do we think she’ll miss the shot this time? When she blows the assignment and misses the targeted yakuza crime boss, Kate realizes she has been poisoned with a radioactive isotope by a vengeful someone. She may be slowly dying with only 24 hours left, but Kate seeks her own revenge. But first, she’ll need Ani (Miku Martineau), the rebellious teenage daughter of Kate’s past mark.


In the wake of “Black Widow” and Netflix’s other recent action offering “Gunpowder Milkshake”—which also featured a female assassin, mentored by a veteran actor, trying to keep safe her last target’s daughter—“Kate” doesn’t always boast enough energy or fresh ideas to not feel repetitive and disposable. Director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (2016’s “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”) does allow neon-soaked Japan to stand as a very stylistic backdrop, pops of pink adding much-needed color and anime projecting on the rooftops. A scene where Kate chases down someone in a Kaido racer may look like it belongs in the Skittle-colored, CGI-heavy “Speed Racer” rather than a fierce, grounded action movie, but it’s still exciting and eye-popping. Nicolas-Troyan also lets us savor the fight choreography and appreciate the stunt work. A couple of memorable sequences do evoke the balletic best of a “John Wick” or “The Raid." In one, Kate takes on her enemies at a hangout called The Black Lizard and gives herself an unintentional haircut before stabbing a man through the chin, and then a penthouse kitchen fight with Ani’s uncle Jojima (Miyavi) pulls out all the stops with champagne flutes as improvised weaponry. 


Ultimately, what “Kate” has going for it comes down to Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She sells the existence of this pro terminator, bringing welcome shades of humanity and a flip, no-nonsense attitude. One might assume that Winstead completely elevates how Kate might have read as a cipher on the page, but as it turns out, killing machines are just like us and have their vices; Kate likes Boom Boom lemon soda! Newcomer Miku Martineau makes a good pain-in-the-ass foil for Winstead, and Woody Harrelson brings the world-weariness that he must as Kate’s father figure. There’s a certain revelation that’s spoiled early by a dead giveaway, but somehow not even Kate can remember a certain saying being repeated, which deflates the surprise. It may be a matter of timing that this female-fronted badassery feels like so many other movies, but “Kate” fits the bill if you're just looking for a watchable time-killer.


Grade: C +


Netflix is releasing “Kate” (106 min.) to stream on September 10, 2021.

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