![]() I’ve decided to celebrate the release of Red Sparrow by compiling a list of the top five films that have starred Jennifer Lawrence. The film stars the Oscar winning actress as ballerina Dominika Egorova, a Soviet spy tasked with targeting a CIA agent (Played by Joel Edgerton). When a film stoops this low, it’s no wonder this “sparrow” leaves me seeing red.The news of director Francis Lawrence and actress Jennifer Lawrence working together has been largely revelled in ever since the teaser trailer for Lionsgate’s adaptation of Jason Matthew’s contemporary spy thriller Red Sparrow dropped just over 5 months ago. That leaves you wishing for a film that would take advantage of her talent, rather than her looks. She can do tough and strong-willed in her sleep, but mostly all she’s called on to do is suffer pain and abuse. Lawrence’s performance is nothing special, either. The movie just doesn’t have the necessary dramatic heft to justify any of these turns, especially the big reveal at the end. You can practically hear the thud when Justin (“Revolutionary Road”) Haythe’s script hits the wall and sells out to one ridiculous twist after the next, most of them unearned. An absorbing first act gives way to worn-out espionage pap abetted by underdeveloped characters and repeated bursts of gratuitous violence. Female empowerment is the last thing on anyone’s mind when Jennifer Lawrence is full-frontal naked, or later when she’s waterboarded or beaten to a bloody pulp, more than once.Īside from this warped sense of feminism, “Red Sparrow” turns out be a by-the-numbers spy flick. But is that true when you dress the woman in a black lace thong and shoot her closeup from behind, more than once? As the script repeats, it’s a “sacrifice for a higher purpose.” I think we all know the intention. Too bad there isn’t more of her.įrancis Lawrence, who directed the other Lawrence (no relation) in the last three installments of “The Hunger Games,” makes clear in this era of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements that he believes a woman who stands up against a looming threat serves to inspire. She gets caught up in a plot to sell state secrets. Mary-Louise Parker delivers the movie’s best performance as a boozy chief-of-staff to a U.S senator. And no spy picture is complete unless there’s a mole to flush out among the supporting players (Jeremy Irons, Ciarán Hinds, Bill Camp, Thekla Reuten, Sakina Jaffrey). Genre trappings about double agents, double crosses and protecting assets take over. ![]() Eventually, the script couples her with an American CIA agent, Nate Nash, (Joel Edgerton), stationed in Budapest. She masters the art of psychological manipulation and exploiting weakness. Nevertheless, Dominika persists otherwise there’d be no movie. ![]() So, off she goes to spy school, where it’s bullets to the head “if you can’t be useful to the state.”ĭuring her training to be a covert operative, Dominika is physically assaulted, humiliated and dehumanized under the watch of the great Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years”) playing the cold Matron. He’s played by Matthias Schoenaerts, who brings a whole new definition to creepy uncle in making his niece an offer she can’t refuse. Piling on to this ridiculous plot is the ludicrously named - all apologies to Chekhov - Uncle Vanya, the deputy director of the Russian security services (SVR).
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