Red Sparrow review

RED SPARROW:

JENNIFER LAWRENCE KEEPS THIS OCCASIONALLY EROTIC BUT MOSTLY FORGETTABLE THRILLER AFLOAT!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow

            Superstar, Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men franchise, The Hunger Games franchise, Silver Linings Playbook) re-unites with director, Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games 2-3.2) in the latest spy thriller, Red Sparrow, based on the novel of the same name by Jason Matthews. Going into this movie I knew nothing about the book so I’m not sure how accurate the film follows it, but as an enthusiast of Jennifer Lawrence as an actress and the film looking interesting to me, I gave it a watch…even if it looked like a graphic version of Marvel’s Black Widow’s origin story from Avengers: Age of Ultron, but I digress.

            While the film is shot beautifully and has its moments of legitimate thrills, it falls flat with bland characters and a convoluted story that really isn’t that interesting. On the plus side, even when she’s in bad or mediocre films, Jennifer Lawrence gives it her all and never half-asses her performance.

            My thoughts on Red Sparrow as a whole is rather similar to what I thought of Jennifer Lawrence’s previous film, Mother! Where I didn’t know what to make of it. But unlike Mother! Which I thought “Don’t know what to say about it, leaning towards good”, Red Sparrow was more leaning towards bad, could be worse I could have been watching Fifty Shades Freed.

            In modern day Russia, the film follows a young woman named Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) who is many things at once, a devoted daughter protecting her mother at all costs, a successful ballet dancer who pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit, and a master of seductive and manipulative combat. After a career-ending injury, Dominika finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for a secret organization called Sparrows.

            At the Sparrow School, Dominika is trained to use her mind and body as weapons through perverse and sadistic processes and becomes the strongest and most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. But when her life and the lives of everyone she cares about are at risk, she must reconcile the person she was with her new power to save them.

            The film also stars Joel Edgerton (Star Wars: Episodes II and III, The Gift, It Comes at Night) as Nate Nash, Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone, The Drop, The Danish Girl) as Ivan Vladimirovich Egorova, Charlotte Rampling (Spy Game, The Duchess, Assassin’s Creed) as Matron, Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, RED) as Stephanie Boucher, Jeremy Irons (Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Lion King, DC Extended Universe) as General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi, Ciarán Hinds (Road to Perdition, Munich, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2) as Colonel Zacharov, Joely Richardson (The Patriot, Anonymous, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)) as Nina Egorova, Bill Camp (12 Years a Slave, Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Black Mass) as Marty Gable, Thekla Reuten (Lost, The American, How to Train Your Dragon) as Marta Yelenova, Hugh Quarshie (Highlander, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Doctor Who) as Simon Benford, Sakina Jaffrey (Raising Helen, The Manchurian Candidate, House of Cards) as Trish Forsyth, Douglas Hodge (Vanity Fair, The Descent: Part 2, Robin Hood (2010)) as Maxim Volontov, and Kristof Konrad (Independence Day, Angels & Demons, Chernobyl Diaries) as Dimitri Ustinov.

            Overall, Red Sparrow is an ambitious movie that takes risks in its subject matter and graphic themes of sex and violence, unfortunately not so much in its story. I appreciate the attempts at trying to be this sexy but intense spy thriller in similar veins as James Bond or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but there’s not much to set it apart from the rest.

            But with that said, there are good elements in here, the film is shot very beautifully, some of the thrills got a decent reaction out of me, and despite being written bland, Jennifer Lawrence’s performance kept me invested. Had she been replaced by Kristen Stewart from Twilight or Dakota Johnson from Fifty Shades, under similar direction as the Fifty Shades movies I’d probably fall asleep and/or walk out.

            I have yet to see a movie with Jennifer Lawrence where she’s not trying in her performance, it seems like even if the movie she’s in happens to be trash, she always puts effort in her role and manages to make an impression. Thought she was good in Passengers, doesn’t mean I liked the movie.

            I’m sure this movie looked good on paper but execution wise, boy does it fall flat? Clocking in at over 2 and a half hours with long, drawn-out scenes that could have been trimmed down to be more effective, scenes that go nowhere, and plot elements that don’t make a whole lot of sense.

            Red Sparrow isn’t the worst I’ve seen, but in terms of an erotic spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence, I was expecting more. If you’re a fan of the book or a fan of watching good girls going bad, then Red Sparrow might be up your alley.