Review: Red Sparrow

Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

"Red Sparrow" - based on the novel by Justin Haythe and directed by Francis Lawrence - has a grueling torture sequence that leads into a tense finale and clever plot twist. Unfortunately, these impressive 15 minutes are preceded by two hours of a mostly routine spy thriller. I've heard some raves about the book on which the film is based, but the movie comes off as merely a slightly grimmer version of "The Americans," albeit not nearly as good.

Jennifer Lawrence does her best in the role of Dominika Egorova, a ballerina whose career comes to a tragic end on stage after she breaks her leg. She is then swindled by her creepy uncle, Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts), a top ranking official in Russian intelligence, into a mission during which she must seduce a rapey Russian enemy of the state, who is then killed while in her presence. Dominika is given a choice - die or become a "sparrow," a Russian spy who is trained to seduce her victims to obtain information from them.

Dominika is taken to a school where she and her fellow students are overseen by a merciless woman played by Charlotte Rampling who forces the students to engage in everything from fellatio to rape in front of the other students for the purpose of psychological training. Despite the pervasive threat of sexual assault, Dominika takes to the career move pretty well and shows that she is astute as a spy. This catches the attention of Vanya's supervisors, including one played by Jeremy Irons who may not be entirely trustworthy.

Dominika's mission becomes entangled with another being carried out by a CIA operative named Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), whose penchant for not selling others out is observed in an early sequence during which he nearly ruins his career for the sake of saving someone else. Of course, Dominika and Nate are each assigned to tail the other, and their slow evolving "relationship" alternately appears faked and genuine.

One of the elements that keeps "Red Sparrow" from soaring is that the material - while certainly dark thematically - is also presented in one drab scene after the next. While watching this film, one might be led to believe that anything other than low level lighting is forbidden in Russia. Also, despite being in a majority of the film's scenes, Dominika is somewhat of a cypher. Yes, her character is supposed to be as such, but all we really know about her is that she's good at fending off creepy men and she doesn't want her ailing mother to suffer as the result of her actions.

"Red Sparrow" is certainly not a bad movie and its cast does what they can to enliven the proceedings. It's not until the film nears its finale that it picks up. The aforementioned torture scene is grueling, but adeptly filmed and choreographed. It's one of the more flinch-inducing hand-to-hand combat scenes of any recent movie that I can recall. There's also a twist in the picture's final scenes that is clever and expertly handled. Ultimately, it's a case of a little too late and a solid culminating 15 minutes can't quite carry the film. All in all, "Red Sparrow" is only a moderately effective spy thriller, but it has its moments.