Red Sparrow is a very interesting paradox of a movie. It’s well-made with competent performances but it fails to find a focus for much of its run time. I enjoyed about 48% of the movie which means there was about 52% that I didn’t.
It stars Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian ballerina who suffers a horrible injury and then is confronted by her uncle by joining her organization of spies who use elaborate seduction and psychological manipulation to extract the necessary information from their clients. Her big case is to meet up with a CIA operative (Joel Edgerton) while he’s visiting Moscow.
Her goal is to use her techniques and expertise to lull him into her confidence and then report back to her uncle. Lawrence’s character could be a female Jason Bourne minus all the cool fighting styles. Instead she just looks really attractive and allows her wits to fight her battles for her.
The rest of movie features our two main stars meeting up at convenient places and times in order to go through the mechanics of the screenplay like a checklist.
Lawrence and Edgerton are intriguingly miscast though Lawrence does shine more so that he does. The problem is the script feeling like its on high and low and doesn’t quite make up its mind about which direction it wants to go. There’s a lot about this movie that is more gratuitous than tantalizing and some scenes don’t have a very satisfying payoff.
It oftentimes is a great exercise in style but that’s about all it’s got going for it.
Grade: C+
(Rated R for strong violence, torture, sexual content, language, and some graphic nudity.)
