‘Rhythm Section’ misses some beats
Based on Mark Burnell’s 1999 spy novel, “The Rhythm Section” — directed by “The Handmaid’s Tale” helmer Reed Morano — may be the female James Bond or Jason Bourne movie everybody wanted. It certainly bears enough resemblance to such efforts as “La Femme Nikita” and the Bourne series. Or is “The Rhythm Section” a frequently dull, derivative and tedious spy thriller from Eon Productions and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who give us another effort from the Bond franchise every few years (we’re overdue).
Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively with a peekaboo British accent) is a scarred and bruised hot mess when the action starts with over-edited images of her idealized family members, all of whom were killed when the commercial plane on which they were passengers was blown up over the Atlantic by terrorist bomb-maker Mohammed Reza (Tawfeek Barhom). Stephanie descends into drugs and prostitution before being contacted by a freelance journalist named Proctor (Raza Jaffrey of “Homeland”) and then recruited by the M-like Iain Boyd (Jude Law), formerly of MI6.
Boyd takes Stephanie to a Scottish isle where he trains her by making her run in the mountains and swim in an icy loch. Boyd also spontaneously attacks Stephanie in the wooden cabin they share like Inspector Clouseau and Cato. Can this gone girl be turned into a superskilled killer while on drillcation in Scotland?
Sooner than anyone expected, Stephanie, who assumes the identity of dead hit woman Petra Reuter, is at least a semi-trained assassin and undercover spy with a bag full of guns and wigs and license to cause mayhem in such places as Madrid, Tangier, New York
and London, were she meets and often kills such spy-movie types as information broker Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown in a murky role)
The odd title of “The Rhythm Section,” the first of four Stephanie Patrick books, comes from advice Iain gives Stephanie about keeping calm under pressure, by controlling her breathing and heart rate. The film recalls such female-fronted recent efforts as “Atomic Blonde” with Charlize Theron and the best-forgotten “Red Sparrow” with Jennifer Lawrence.
Lively, who injured her hand, suspending production of the film in 2018, is certainly photogenic enough to hold the camera’s interest. But the character is a bit of a blank slate, and
Morano’s unfortunate choice to employ the outmoded shaky-cam technique makes watching much of the action difficult. A chaotic car chase and well-staged fight scenes, however, suggest Morano could have done better with a steadier hand and a screenplay less full of cliches than the one author Burnell provided.
Music by Hans Zimmer associate Steve Mazzaro is similarly familiar, employing Arabic tropes to poke the paranoia and fear. Morano uses existing songs to introduce Stephanie’s “hits” such as Lou Reed’s “I’m Waiting for My Man” and Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never.”
Lively impressively handles the role’s physical demands. But while Jason Bourne leaped and swung around North African rooftops like an acrobat, Stephanie clambers shakily in a flapping coat. The camera is not the only thing that needs steadying in “The Rhythm Section.”
(“The Rhythm Section” contains profanity, drug use, sexually suggestive scenes and violence.)