HAVING more or less won television with her iconic turn as chic assassin Villanelle in the BBC hit series Killing Eve, Jodie Comer this week begins her conquest of Hollywood with similar versatility.

In Free Guy, the young Liverpudlian stars alongside Ryan Reynolds as Millie, a video game programmer, and her digital alter ego Molotov Girl. Whereas Millie is a wash of nerves in the real world, Molotov Girl is as kick ass as they come. Comer glides between the two effortlessly.

Not to be outshone, Reynolds impresses too as Guy, a background character in the game Millie created. Every morning, Guy wakes, dons the same blue shirt, buys the same coffee from his local take-out and drops obediently to the ground when the bank he works for is robbed. It’s a good life.

Groundhog Day collapses for Guy, however, when his attention is drawn by Molotov Girl. In the real world, Millie has come to believe that the game’s publisher - Taika Waititi’s cartoonish Antwan - has ripped her and co-coder Keys (Joe Keery) by using their programme without paying due fees.

Can Guy help her uncover the truth? For the sake of the game - and all that is good in the world - Millie had better hope so.

In the wake of early screenings, Free Guy has quickly been labelled the surprise the Summer. A hit no-one quite saw coming. And yet, in the hands of Night of the Museum director Shawn Levy, Free Guy boasts a winning energy and zany sense of fun.

Easy comparisons can be made to The Truman Show but there’s more than a hint of more recent offerings Ready Player One and The Lego Movie.

An abundance of impressive cameos keep things fresh, while wry send ups of gaming culture play well in the screenplay from Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn. Perhaps things get a little gooey towards the close but perhaps it’s earned.

Certainly, audiences will find themselves emotionally invested enough in the trajectory of Millie and Guy to warrant the sprinkling of sentimentality that the film douses them in.

Comer will next star in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel - awards fodder if ever such a film existed - and has a bright future on the horizon. For fans of Killing Eve, it’s hard not to feel just a little bit proud.