Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Action-comedy about female heist squad; language, violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Wingwomen
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
After another routinely spectacular heist in Switzerland, the WINGWOMEN of the title, two best friends, roommates, and master thieves, decide they want out of the game. Carole (Melanie Laurent, who also directs) and Alex (Adele Exarchopoulos) have money and skills (weaponry, safe-cracking, skydiving, martial arts, and more). They fear nothing. They banter through threatening situations, chattering about boyfriends, cookies, and French fries as bullets fly and they skydive across Switzerland to safety. Carole had been told she was infertile and now discovers she is six weeks pregnant. Perhaps retirement is in order, but they will have to use their wiles to evade The Godmother (Isabelle Adjani), the powerful and threatening underworld figure for whom they've long worked. When they are forced into one last job, they recruit Sam (Manon Bresch) and off they go. The stakes are high, as is the body count.
Is It Any Good?
Wingwomen is an enjoyable romp that imbues its two female main characters with the studied devil-may-care of a James Bond. Danger? Oh, just peel me a grape. Unruffled and imperturbable in the manner of a Clint Eastwood lawman, they eat danger for breakfast and then laugh and dance about it. That they are women is part of the trick. Viewers can assume the paramilitary training, the long runs with heavy packs, the weight training, the skydiving practice, and the long hours shooting at targets have made them the unflappable professionals we see before us, equal to any man under any circumstances. The only difference is that these criminals cry when things are sad and hug and say "I love you," while the men in the movies this mocks don't.
In any case, the rules of the real world don't seem to apply to these insouciant criminals. They never care that witnesses might see them, they're never in a rush to leave the scene of the crime. This is probably no more absurd than a Mission Impossible installment but when two women start dancing in the street to distract men so a third woman can shoot them, no cops show up, and no one seems to hear the disturbance, the movie abandons any sense of duty to the audience to make sense.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what this movie says about female friendship. Alex and Carole love each other and literally will die for each other but recognize they are so good at what they do that men will always be afraid to be their romantic partners.
What are some of the ways this seems to mock movies in which male characters are always unafraid and always confident they will accomplish missions and escape unscathed? We take the attitudes in those movies as normal, yet when we see women behaving similarly, does it point out the ridiculousness of the male behaviors?
What are some of the ways the movie emphasizes how women with the same murderous skills as men are somehow different from men?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : November 1, 2023
- Cast : Melanie Laurent , Isabelle Adjani , Adele Exarchopoulos , Manon Bresch
- Director : Melanie Laurent
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Middle Eastern/North African Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 114 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : March 15, 2024
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