Red Sparrow
Action thriller. With Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Matthias Schoenaerts. Director: Francis Lawrence. 18SNV SV.
Though their collaboration on the last three Hunger Games films was a big success, actress Jennifer Lawrence and director Francis Lawrence stumble with this spy thriller.
Based on the novel by exCIA agent Jason Matthews, Jennifer plays Russian ballerina Dominika Egarova who, after a horrific injury, is forced to become a “sparrow” – a spy who seduces her victims to glean information.
Her first target is CIA agent Nate Nash (Edgerton), who sees through Dominika and asks her to become a double agent. But who’s really playing who, and what if emotions get in the way?
What at first seems like an intriguing story about a com- plex heroine descends into a tedious film that keeps viewers at arm’s length. To keep up the suspense of who’s double-crossing who, you’re never given insight into Dominika or Nate’s motivations. They remain flat characters whose romance you never buy into as there’s no chemistry between the two stars.
But what really brings the film down is the gratuitous nudity and violence, most of it inflicted on Dominika. It seems she becomes empowered by enduring various forms of abuse, but is being degraded really the only way for a woman to outwit the misogynists around her?
A disturbing, unpleasant film that wastes its great cast.