Lawrence is superb as a young woman both trying to take control of her own destiny and trying to determine what that would look like. Red Sparrow is a big, sprawling and unapologetically nasty spy drama, one more rooted in character, sex and violence than action beats.
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The whole package is anchored by an uncommonly amoral movie star turn by one of the most famous actresses in the world. The rest of the cast (including Jeremy Irons) all relish the opportunity to dig into this kind of material outside of pay cable. It’s a great character turn from a veteran actress who has been underused since Weeds left the air. I would have happily seen an entire film told from her point-of-view. Red Sparrow is perhaps a bit too much of a good thing.Ī tighter film may not have had the time for Mary Louise Parker’s delightful glorified cameo as a crooked (and heavily intoxicated) Congressional aide. And the film’s third act is padded out by more false endings than Return of the King and Point Break combined, even if the in-the-moment sequence mostly keep our attention. Of course, the film’s “epic-ness” extends to its 140-minute running time, which is way too long for the story being told.
The picture remains relatively clinical about their alleged relationship, and that lack of condescension keeps us on our toes.ĭirector Francis Lawrence crafts an unapologetically “big” movie, offering lush production values, multiple locations, a sense of scale and a grown-up sensibility that was once taken for granted in mid-level studio pictures.
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Sure, the film flirts with the whole “young Russian girl used as an unwilling pawn of the state is rescued by a do-gooder American spy” thing, but the movie doesn’t play that track at full volume. Red Sparrow avoids certain tropes of this genre, as (for example) the relationship between the Russian spy and the CIA operative is not some great love story but merely two attractive people who eventually get sexually involved with each other.
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Jokes about Lawrence having to learn how to seduce dudes notwithstanding, the plot works. The movie then becomes a puzzle box, where the audience is kept on its toes in terms of whose side Dominika is on and if the CIA dude is getting to her. So off she goes to Moscow to suss out a mole via an apparent seduction of a demoted CIA agent (Joel Edgerton). But things go very, very badly, and the former dancer is given the choice of a quiet death or enrollment in the “Sparrow School,” which trains young Russians in spy-craft with an emphasis on seduction.ĭominika may not make the best impression on her teacher (a delicious Charlotte Rampling), but her disobedience and lack of tact impress a few people on the food chain. With no way to support herself or her ill mother, Dominika Egorova is quickly recruited by her uncle, a powerful man (played with understated menace by Matthias Schoenaerts) who helps run the SVR, to partake in what is intended to be a one-time assignment. Lawrence’s descent into her own personal hell begins as her promising ballet career is cut short via a gruesome injury. Warts and all, it’s just focused on being a good movie and a movie star showcase.
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But there is a real sense of danger and menace to the proceedings, and a real effort to craft a big-scale espionage drama sans any demands for franchise affinity or long-term brand. It’s not necessarily a “fun” flick, and no one is going to mistake it for a so-called female empowerment movie. Well, this deeply cynical Jennifer Lawrence vehicle certainly qualifies. I’ve talked a lot about 20 th Century Fox setting themselves apart by releasing big or big-ish movies for adults.
It’s also both way too long and mostly engrossing from start-to-finish. It’s an adult movie for grownups from a time when there was a readily available audience for such a thing. It’s absolutely a movie for adults, featuring the kind of frank sexual content and graphic violence that is barely possible in our PG-13, four-quadrant global blockbuster era. It is less an action thriller than a borderline erotic horror show, a cold-blooded and often vicious espionage drama that sustains itself through twists, turns and periodic bouts of uncommon onscreen cruelty.
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