'The Spy Who Dumped Me' review: Mila Kunis, LI's Kate McKinnon in mission unlaughable

Mila Kunis plays a pretty doormat, Audrey, whose ex-boyfriend turns out to be a CIA operative in the R-rated action comedy “The Spy Who Dumped Me.” Thanks to her success in saucy movies like “Friends With Benefits” and “Bad Moms," Kunis is the first-billed star here. Really, though, “The Spy Who Dumped Me” feels like a stealth vehicle for her comedic sidekick, Kate McKinnon.

McKinnon, of course, is the gifted mimic of “Saturday Night Live” whose cocksure Hillary Clinton ran against Alec Baldwin’s dimwitted Donald Trump in 2016. In this movie, McKinnon just plays a regular person: Morgan, Audrey’s steadfast friend. Morgan never did like that boyfriend, Drew (Justin Theroux), but when he gets shot trying to obtain a flash drive with encrypted information, she steps up to help Audrey complete the mission. They’re aided by handsome, blond British agent Sebastian (Sam Heughan).

This is where the funny stuff should begin, but for some reason, “The Spy Who Dumped Me” is almost as violent as a real action movie, with bloody noses, splattery bullet wounds, an impaled hand and a severed thumb. It all sits oddly with the light banter between Audrey and Morgan. Their casual, distracted attitude is played for laughs, but the film’s attitude feels callous: Endearing bit players enter the picture, only to be killed and forgotten.

The movie seems flummoxed by McKinnon, and vice versa. For starters, Morgan isn’t much of a character (she’s an aspiring actress) and McKinnon never fully inhabits her. She looks self-conscious and audience-conscious, mugging and grinning as if still playing to a live room. At the same time, the movie makes little use of McKinnon’s great gift for impressions. Would you believe she does only one full-blown fake-identity routine here? In a spy comedy? One last complaint: We all know McKinnon is openly gay, so why does this movie put her character in an asexual closet? The only hint that Morgan has any orientation at all comes when she fawns over a haughty MI6 honcho (Gillian Anderson). Even these odd scenes make little sense unless you know the joke: McKinnon once publicly admitted to a youthful crush on Anderson.

Directed and co-written by Susanna Fogel, “The Spy Who Dumped Me” feels destined to join “Rough Night,” 2016’s “Ghostbusters” and other movies that didn’t know what to do with McKinnon. Her big-screen breakout role is still ahead of her.