‘Red Sparrow’
A tale of Russian ballerina following a career-ending injury, who is forced to become ‘sparrow’ after blackmailed by her uncle , how she excels in her training & mission and then doing what is best for her family.
The Russian accent is simply one of the challenges Jennifer Lawrence has to fight to overcome in “Red Sparrow,” a sleek but slightly mutated spy thriller, plucked by a long line of cinematic femme fatales. The film receives a classy boost out of the supporting cast, however — functioning chiefly as an alluring showcase for the star — doesn’t completely take off. At risk of losing her lavish apartment and health care for her ailing mother (Joely Richardson)that the Bolshoi provided, she is mercilessly pimped out by her relative (Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, who is very good), a highly placed espionage official, into an elite unit trained in using the arts of seduction and “psychological manipulation.”
At precisely the same time, an American CIA officer, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), is grappling with his bureaucracy, attempting to return to Europe to shield a Russian mole he’s cultivated inside the government. The matter, played for all it is worth, is who will end up manipulating whom, together with abundant twists and betrayals in writer Justin Haythe’s version of Jason Matthews’ book.
The “Who will you trust?” Cat-and-mouse game was made to help keep the viewer off balance and guessing, which normally works; nonetheless, at almost two hours and 20 minutes, “Red Sparrow” dangers overstaying its welcome. For starters, the elongated orientation drags on, at least for anybody who is prepared for the key plot to eventually jerk into movement. People are “a puzzle of need,” Dominika is advised during her coaching, a weakness that the “sparrows” are highly proficient at exploiting. In that respect, she is a natural, regardless of the indignities — and brutality — to that she is subjected. Regardless of the modern setting, “Red Sparrow” includes a great deal in common with FX’s “The Americans,” which also explores the depths to which the Russians goes in manipulating their counterparts, using gender as the ultimate instrument. In both situations, that entails uncomfortably mixing violence and sex, in a way that particularly here is not for the squeamish.
For the most part, however, the film provides an old-school van for Lawrence, who afterwards her esoteric indulgence from the box-office flop “mother” Is straight back into movie-star land, relying upon her ability to seduce the crowd. Lawrence provides good on this level, and it is difficult not to feel with Dominika’s plight, having been thrown to this unforgiving world. As a secret agent, the one-time dancer has “great potential,” her uncle observes — a description which also applies to “Red Sparrow,” but that, for all its resources, doesn’t always reach the peaks.
The film spends more time looking at Lawrence than giving us insight into her state of mind, treating her so much like an object of fascination that you start to wonder whether the filmmakers have any idea what the point of their own story is. She is victimized throughout the entirety of Red Sparrow, making it difficult to appreciate just how much effort she puts into creating a nuanced character between those overpoweringly uncomfortable moments.
With an uncompromising attitude to complex plotting and disturbing & brutal content, Red Sparrow is a promising beginning to a potential new spy franchise. Just be aware of its unexpectedly barbed edges.