Film Review: Red Sparrow

"The Cold War Did Not End, It Merely Shattered Into A Thousand Pieces..."

Based upon the similarly titled 2013 novel by former Central Intelligence Agency agent, Jason Matthews, director Francis Lawrence reunites with long-term collaborator, Jennifer Lawrence (mother!), after their work together on the final three entries within Hunger Games film series with Red Sparrow, a sadistic spy thriller which attempts to blend the nihilistic approach of cold war paranoia with a Robert Ludlum-esque secret agent mystery narrative featuring Lawrence in the leading role as the Russian ballerina turned operative who is tasked with discovering a native mole who has been supplying the US with state secrets. With a lifeless, cold tone and a jaw-dropping exploitation sensibility which airs more on the side of advantageous leering regarding its' lead star than that of actual substance, Red Sparrow is a staggeringly misjudged and overly dull affair, one which although can be somewhat praised for attempting to present a more bolder and brutal by the numbers spy story, hashes it's early promise and comes across more as an overly disappointing affair with a, hold your breath, completely miscast leading lady. 

After sustaining an ill-fated injury which prematurely ends her career as a prestigious ballerina, Jennifer Lawrence's awfully accented Dominika Egorova turns to Matthias Schoenaerts' (The Danish Girl) Ivan Dimitrevich Egorov, her slimy, power hungry uncle who recruits her into the "Red Sparrow" programme and under the wing of Charlotte Rampling's (45 Years) Matron who attempts to teach her the ways of psychological, sexual and overly humiliating manipulation. With Lawrence being confined to direction which forces her to maintain a complete look of utter boredom and attempting to preserve a straight face during set pieces which give Fifty Shades of Grey a run for its' money, Red Sparrow suffers primarily from a key weakness regarding Lawrence's implausibility as a hard-edged Russian spy, and whilst her dodgy accent isn't the only one in the movie to induce sniggering fits of laughter, the film is made worse by being a key example of an obsession between director and leading star reaching astronomical levels, with the camera woozily ogling at the sight of its' leading star whenever she is forced to take off her clothes or engage in one of many terribly misjudged sexuality torture scenes. Whilst I am all for nudity and stylised violence when absolutely necessary, Lawrence's latest is one the most unnecessary gory examples of mainstream exploitation cinema I've seen in recent history, and when you through into the mix a yawn inducing underlying narrative about double-crossing agents and a resolution which is the definition of cop-out, Red Sparrow is indeed quite poor, even with a semi-decent Joel Edgerton attempting to save the day. 

Overall Score: 4/10