Red Sparrow

Release Date: March 2, 2018
Runtime: 140 minutes
Rating: R
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence; Joel Edgerton; Jeremy Irons; Matthias Schoenaerts; Charlotte Rampling; Mary-Louise Parker; Joely Richardson; Ciarán Hinds; Bill Camp; Sakina Jaffrey

The chief film critic of Variety, Owen Gleiberman, a critic whose reviews I have read for many years, said of Jennifer Lawrence in his review of Red Sparrow: “Lawrence, in this movie, shows you what true screen stardom is all about.”

I couldn’t agree more. It’s impossible to take your eyes off of Lawrence as she winds her way through the dangerous and labyrinthine world of international espionage. With one uptick of her blood red lips, the viewer is clued into her precise intention. She is our guide on this perilous journey and we want to protect her even though we are damn sure she doesn’t need our protection!

Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) is a famed ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet, but her career becomes permanently derailed after a painful (and cringe-worthy) on-stage accident. Running out of time before the Bolshoi stops paying for her Moscow apartment, where she lives with her sickly mother (Joely Richardson), and the health insurance her mother desperately needs, Dominika accepts a covert job from her Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts), an intelligence officer with the Russian military. Not long after what turns out to be a disastrous assignment, she is recruited to be a Sparrow – a state run spy-in-training program. Dominika is sent to the Sparrow training facility located in middle-of-nowhere Russia, where she is subjected to a brutal and humiliating training regimen (although, not nearly as brutal and humiliating as poor Elisabeth Moss and company suffer weekly in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale). After thwarting an attempted rape at the hands of a fellow Sparrow, Dominika is unexpectedly released from training and handed the mission of tracking American spy, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) in order to squeeze him for information about a mole in the Russian military. But is she tracking Nate or falling for Nate? And whose side is she on anyway? Alliances are crossed, then crossed again, and it all builds to a twisty finale that is as entertaining as it is ludicrous.

This isn’t your typical James Bond, focus-on-action-and-cool-gadgets kind of spy movie. Francis Lawrence’s Red Sparrow, based on a book written by real-life ex-CIA agent, Jason Matthews, and intricately adapted by Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road), is an ambitious, plot-heavy piece of post-Cold War spy-noir, more along the lines of Fred Schepisi’s The Russia House than anything in the Bond franchise. Dominika’s entanglements and motivations are adult in nature, and this movie doesn’t skimp on the adult content (Red Sparrow is very R-rated). This is a-okay with me, it’s refreshing to have an adult-oriented mainstream film released to theaters; not every product that comes out of Hollywood needs to be family-friendly and watered down to appeal to everyone. Yet while the movie doesn’t work on all levels – for one, I wish it had more of a flashy style, which is interesting for a Francis Lawrence movie, and the Russian accents by non-Russian actors are distracting – I admire the director’s “no apologies for the content” approach to his film.

Joel Edgerton has yet to truly impress me with his acting, and he doesn’t do so here. His bro-spy Nate Nash gives off more of a desperate used car salesman vibe, rather than hardcore intelligence agent. Mary-Louise Parker bags a free trip to Budapest for her fun, but crucial, cameo as the drunken chief-of-staff to some senator. Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling lend their regal selves to small roles, both having performed better elsewhere, but just fine here.

Red Sparrow is slickly photographed by Jo Willems in exotic locations (most of the film is shot in and around Budapest), and yet the movie comes across blandly. Some nice overhead shots can’t carry the style for the whole picture. It’s a bit of a letdown because I love me a chic, twisty spy thriller.

Jennifer Lawrence’s performance, however, just about makes up for the lack of visual flair in Red Sparrow. See it for her mesmerizing stroll through the danger zone.