‘Wingwomen’ Review: A Crew of Femme Fatales

“Wingwomen” is the rare French action movie directed by a woman, Mélanie Laurent, the breakout star of “Inglourious Basterds” turned filmmaker in her native France. Laurent’s seventh feature, a girl-power spectacle, purports to be a naughtier version of “Charlie’s Angels” — its leading three ladies party, smoke and have vigorous libidos — so it’s too bad these spicier elements are muted by the film’s flat tone and derivative style.

Laurent also stars as the film’s veteran thief, Carole, a steely, chiseled blonde. Her bestie, and No. 2, is Alex (Adèle Exarchopoulos), an expert sniper and an unabashed flirt whom the older Carole recruited years ago for a diamond heist. Now a seasoned crime team, Carole is the brains, Alex the muscle. The duo eventually gains a third leg with Sam (Manon Bresch), a racecar driver.

Among the three gals, Alex does the heavy lifting on all fronts: She performs most of the kills, and she’s also — thanks to a feisty, potty-mouthed Exarchopoulos — the source of the film’s grit, sensuality and humor. In one scene, she bluntly fast-tracks a flirtation into a romp in the sack, which evolves into a moonlit fight scene with a peeping-Tom hit man. Alex gets bruised and bloodied, but so does the meathead baddie. It’s one of the few moments when the film’s feminist beatdowns feel genuinely triumphant: Alex shifts seamlessly from coy playgirl to seasoned killer, and she’s deliciously blasé about her body count, in both senses of the word.

Yet “Wingwomen” isn’t just about Alex, which is a problem because Exarchopoulos is the only player whose charisma shines through the plot’s mechanical proceedings. Carole discovers she’s pregnant and wants out of the crime life, triggering the conflict: Godmother, a Sapphic mob boss played by Isabelle Adjani, says she will grant Carole her exit only if the ladies head to Corsica to steal a painting.

Competent, unremarkable action scenes — a low-stakes motorcycle chase off the island coastline, a brief shootout in a woodland fortress — come together with ironic comic beats and snippy back-and-forths among the women. (The comedian Philippe Katerine occasionally steps in, too, as the Bosley-like intermediary Abner.)