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<\/p>\nYou probably want to go see \u201cKingsman: The Golden Circle\u201d because you enjoyed the 2014 original, but there\u2019s only one reason why you should actually go spend upwards of $12 to watch the sequel, and her name is Julianne Moore. Sure, Matthew Vaughn\u2019s action scenes remain dazzlingly choreographed and new cast members Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, and Channing Tatum are welcome additions, but Moore owns the entire movie as a scene-chewing sociopath. Sorry, Colin Firth.<\/p>\n
The Oscar winner embraces her dark side as Poppy Adams, a global entrepreneur who wants to legalize the drug trade so that her multimillion dollar empire can operate freely in the United States. Poppy has a fetish for 1950s Americana kitsch, and Moore basically plays her as if her housewife from \u201cFar From Heaven\u201d were a diabolical and demonic James Bond villain \u2014 think Martha Stewart with horns. Poppy is sweet, squeaky-clean, and maternal, but she\u2019ll throw you into a meat grinder and cook a delicious hamburger out of your guts if you don\u2019t follow her instructions.<\/p>\n
Poppy is far removed from a majority of the characters Moore has played across her career.\u00a0The villain falls comfortably into the idiosyncratic section of her filmography, which is populated by the likes of\u00a0Maude Lebowski (\u201cThe Big Lebowski\u201d) and\u00a0Havana Segrand (\u201cMaps to the Stars\u201d). Similar to these characters, Poppy allows Moore to flirt with a kind of madness that becomes addictive to watch. She\u00a0is too good of an actress to simply go overboard and let her villain be defined by craziness, so she straddles a line where Poppy could lose it at any second.<\/p>\n
The thrill of watching Moore as Poppy is all in the tease. Poppy is a sociopath, sure, but Moore doesn\u2019t play her as if she\u2019s well past the point of a psychotic snap. The actress keeps her character right on the edge, and the possibility of seeing her absolutely go nuts\u00a0forces the viewer right into Moore\u2019s palm. Moore did the exact same thing with her Cannes-winning performance as Segrand, and roles like these prove just how much control she has as a performer.<\/p>\n
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At 141 minutes, \u201cThe Golden Circle\u201d is often a bloated and numbing spy spectacle, but it\u2019s Moore who makes it all worth it. By refusing to go over-the-top in her personality, she offers up a different brand of lunacy than Samuel L. Jackson in the original, one that is more refined and dialed back. You can tell from the opening scene that Moore interprets the character as a pragmatic lunatic. Poppy is insane, yes, but her thoughts on America\u2019s criminalization of marijuana may not be totally crazy to some viewers. Moore goes nutty but she never goes so outlandish as to make Poppy a joke. Poppy\u2019s got a real message, and Moore sells it with delicious authority.<\/p>\n