RED SPARROW
R, 139 minutes. Starts tonight at Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. With her bottle-blonde locks, facility with a knife and dour Eastern European playground, Jennifer Lawrence’s “Red Sparrow” is seemingly the 2018 version of Charlize Theron’s “Atomic Blonde.” But that’s where the comparisons end. While the 1980s Berlin-set “Atomic Blonde” was a violent, colorful, sexy and darkly absurdist film, Russian spy thriller “Red Sparrow,” directed by Francis Lawrence, is epic, methodical and unfortunately plodding, jettisoning thrills for a stultifying moodiness. The film is based on the novel by retired CIA spook Jason Matthews, who racked up over three decades of experience in the field. In the story of “Red Sparrow,” poor but politically connected ballerina Dominika (Lawrence) is drawn into a shadowy spy world by her high-ranking SVR officer Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts) when her dance career is ended with a “Showgirls”-style sabotage. He uses her as bait for one of his targets, and with a dead businessman’s blood on her skin and no way to support herself or her ailing mother, she accepts his offer to train as a “Sparrow” — spies who use sex and seduction to psychologically manipulate and collect information from their targets. They send her off to Budapest for her first gig, to gain the trust of a U.S. spy named Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) who’s been receiving intel from a mole buried deep in the ranks of Russian security. Francis Lawrence’s filmmaking in “Red Sparrow” is as seductive as its heroine, and he creates gorgeous compositions in a palette of red and gray, knit together with seamless editing. The film is beautiful to look at, but it’s empty and meaningless. It’s difficult to enjoy watching Dominika seduce and destroy because she’s acting against her will, forced to be a Sparrow to keep her mother cared for. Dominika, despite her mysterious talent for this line of work, is ultimately a victim, pimped out by her uncle, pressed into sexual service for the state. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika with a placid poker face to preserve her secrets and the script’s. Since we never know her, we can never relate to her, understand her or get on her side. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
DEATH WISH
R, 107 minutes. Starts tonight at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Bruce Willis stars in this movie inspired by the Charles Bronson original. After his family is violently attacked, a man becomes a vigilante. A review wasn’t available by deadline.