But we mustn’t forget the biggest supporting character Agent 99, played rather well by Anne Hathaway. Her character, and actually most of the characters come to think of it, gets laughs from our knowledge of this type of character in past spy movies. It plays off of the notion that this is generic stuff (and perhaps that might go some way to remedying the problem of a run-of-the-mill storyline as well) and there is a ton of sight gags that play to that idea and thus it sets itself apart from them. Hathaway makes for a good semi-leading lady, proving here that she can play a diversity of roles (this is a world apart from her turn in The Devil Wears Prada, for example), and I look forward to her cropping up in future projects.
The aforementioned generic plot is perhaps the film's biggest flaw; there just isn’t a whole lot there. It basically has purchased the “basic package” from the store to lay the ground for the comedy elements, something which is both a plus and a niggling annoyance. What there is of a storyline is not all that easy to discern, either; there’s something about an evil organization that are either selling or going to use nuclear weapons. It’s never really clear what the bigger picture is and instead we just have to take everything as it comes along.
For the most part everything that happens in Get Smart is very silly and over-the-top. But this isn’t a problem as it suits the film very well, and therefore some of the minor flaws throughout the story and action sequences as far as credibility goes can be easily forgiven. Every once in a while it’s good to remove your focus from grown-up or intelligent comedy and just have a blast with the silly stuff. And Get Smart is a great opportunity to do that.
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