Today's review is the 2018 drama/thriller film, Red Sparrow, directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, and Jeremy Irons.
After professional ballerina star Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) faces a career-ending injury, she turns to Sparrow School, a Russian secret intelligence agency that trains chosen young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. As she comes to terms of her new abilities, Dominika meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he's the only person she can trust.
I'll admit, when I first saw this trailer I thought it looked interesting. I've always had an fascination with Russian culture, so this film had my interest.
What a major disappointment!
This film had some interesting things but for the most part, it wasn't good. Jennifer Lawrence's performance was hit-and-miss. She was brutal, which I liked, but she couldn't keep the Russian accent together to save her life. Oh yeah, it doesn't help that every Russian in this film speaks perfect English! If you're going to make a movie of a particular country, at least make it realistic by speaking in that nation's original language.
It kind of reminds me of that film Tom Cruise starred in years ago called Valkyrie. We were supposed to believe every cast member were apart of the Nazi Army but yet, everyone spoke perfect English. It takes away the authentic feel of a film.
A few other things hurt it badly:
The movie was entirely way too damn long! It feels like they're just trying to push the film to its runtime limits . It coulda shaved off at least 25 minutes worth. The overall story was very hard to sit thru. It was really boring and uninteresting.
Pros:
The movie is brutal and Jennifer Lawrence's nude scene surprised me. I loved the way the cinematography looked in this film mixed with a bright red color theme. It was really boring and uninteresting. At least they got the clothing and looks of Russia right. I'll give them credit on that . I'll also give them credit on the ending which was a pretty cool twist, but it doesn't save it since the other three-quarters of the movie was severely underwhelming.
Sadly, I'm very disappointed.
Final Grade:
If you seen this film what were your thoughts on it? Leave me a comment below and I'll see you on my next review.