Dominika accepts this devil's bargain and after a brief period of training is assigned to Budapest and tasked with making contact with Nash, who has now set up shop there in the hope of reestablishing contact with Marble.Ī lot of the plot turns from this point are pretty much as expected. In the aftermath of that operation she's given the option of becoming a "Red Sparrow," a spy trained to use sex to gain the trust of targets, or being executed as a witness to the fallout of her unofficial first operation. Now without a means of supporting her disabled mother (Joely Richardson), she is preyed upon by her uncle, Ivan (Matthias Schoenaerts), an SVR director who recruits her to be a honey pot to lure a target into a compromised position. The other is about Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), a ballerina whose career is ended after her leg breaks in horrific fashion during a performance. One is about Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), a CIA agent posted in Moscow who has to be hastily spirited back to the US after blowing his cover by providing a distraction that allows his source, code named "Marble," to escape following a meeting. You can do better with respect to films and you can do better by someone as talented as Jennifer Lawrence.Īdapted by Justin Haythe from the novel of the same name by Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow tells two intersecting stories. It's a 140 minutes which would be reduced to about 15 if you excised all the scenes demonstrating, suggesting, or referencing sexual assault, coercion, harassment, or what the film characterizes as prostitution but which more closely resembles slavery. Ostensibly a spy thriller, albeit of the most predictable, slow-moving, and needlessly convoluted kind, Red Sparrow is really just a perfunctory means of festishizing violence towards women, even though it seems to see itself as an empowerment narrative. Red Sparrow is a film that dares to ask: how many rape scenes is too many? If you've heard the term "male gaze" but aren't sure exactly what it means and would like to see a visual example, then this is the movie for you. Keeping that in mind: Red Sparrow does look and feel a bit like "David Fincher-lite" overall, leaving one to wonder what Fincher and Mara would have made of the project, had they signed on instead of the Lawrences (all the more so when you consider the thematic similarities between Red Sparrow and Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo especially).Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton Trish Summerville's equally chilly, yet lovely costumes are sometimes a bit too reminiscent of the outfits that she designed for Catching Fire's dystopian setting, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy production designer Maria Djurkovic aptly captures the feel of a Cold War thriller throwback with her contributions here. Reuniting with his Hunger Games cinematographer Jo Willems, Francis Lawrence draws from a cold yet striking color palette to bring the film's world of spies, covert operatives, and assassins to life, creating a richly austere sense of atmosphere in the process. Its shortcomings in story and character development aside though, Red Sparrow is a handsome movie purely from an aesthetic perspective. While the caliber of talent that expressed interest in adapting Red Sparrow is a testament to the narrative richness of Matthew's novel, the final film version is more an exercise in style over substance. Anchored by Jennifer Lawrence's performance, Red Sparrow is a slow-burn spy/seductress thriller that's shiny on the surface, yet lacking in depth. Matthew sold the movie rights to his intriguing source material before it had even been published, with Jennifer Lawrence's mother! director Darren Aronofsky and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo duo David Fincher and Rooney Mara among those who circled the project during pre-production. Anchored by Jennifer Lawrence's performance, Red Sparrow is a slow-burn spy/seductress thriller that's shiny on the surface, yet lacking in depth.Īdapted from the book by former CIA operative Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow is a modern espionage flick that reunites Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence with her The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay - Part 1 & 2 director Francis Lawrence.
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