Red Sparrow

This exciting film contains dramatic events, action , thrills, blood and is plenty of sex and graphical violence. Stars Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence who did ballet and practiced a Russian accent for various months) is a famous Russian prima ballerina for the renowned Bolshoi Ballet. After an injury that kept her out of stage, the former Russian dancer is coercively recruited by her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts) to work for the secret services of her country, to be part of the Red Sparrow program. There she will learn the art of espionage using methods of seduction while trying to maintain his sense of identity. The Sparrow school is run by the stiff-upper-lip teacher Matron (Charlotte Rampling). Her first mission, targeting a C. I. A. Agent, Nash (Joel Edgerton), threatens to unravel the security of both nations. The two young officers collide in a charged atmosphere of trade-craft, deception, and inevitably forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but the lives of others as well. Seductive !. Deceptive !. Deadly !. I Know Your Secrets !. The road to forgiveness begins with betrayal !. Seduce!. Deceive !. Repeat!.

This tense spy thriller directed by Francis Lawrence is loaded with a twisted script full of lies, half-truths, plot twists, lots of suspense, and overwhelming sensuality with strong doses of sex. It is based on the novel of the same name written by Jason Matthews. This writer, who was a CIA agent for more than 30 years, provides unbeatable rigor and verisimilitude to the story. With this bestseller and critical success, Matthews opened a trilogy of novels that continues with "Palace of Treason" and closes with ¨The Kremlins Candidate¨. According to Jason Matthews "honeypot" ór ¨Sparrow¨school was indeed part of Soviet intelligence training; in the Soviet Union, they had a school that taught young women the art of seduction, and the art of entrapment, for blackmailing intelligence targets. There was a Sparrow School in the city of Kazan, on the banks of the Volga River, where young women were taught how to be courtesans, they were called 'Sparrows'.

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and Australian actor Joel Edgertom play pretty well two spies who enter into a complicated relationship based on attraction and deception that will endanger their careers and the security of their respective countries. Along with them, other good supporting actors giving good performances, such as: Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciarán Hinds, Joely Richardson, Bill Camp, Thekla Reuten, Douglas Hodge, Sakina Jaffrey, the also Oscar-winning Jeremy Irons, among others, completing the ensemble cast of this film.

It contains a suspenseful and thrilling musical score by James Newton Howard . As well as colorful and adequate cinematography by Jo Willems, Francis Lawrence's regular cameraman. The motion picture was well directed by Francis Lawrence, although it gets a bit long and heavy at times. No relation to actress Jennifer Lawrence, although Francis and Jennifer have worked together in four movies: Hunger Games: Catching fire (2013), Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) and Red Sparrow (2018). He's a successful fimmaker (I am Legend , Constantine , Hunger Games saga) and usually video-clips director (for Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez , among others) . Rating Red Sparrow, 6.5/10 : Good , better than average . Well worth watching .

When we talk about the spy genre, most of us will shout "Bond. James Bond." in your best Sean Connery impression. In reality, and most certainly in my opinion, some of the best spy films are those that focus on espionage. For instance, the John Le Carré adaptations bathed in its dialogue as opposed to action. Red Sparrow attempts to replicate that. A famed ballerina encounters a career-ending injury who is then approached by her powerful uncle who eventually transforms her into a 'Sparrow' (not literally...). Russian operatives capable of seducing their targets, to which one of them being a CIA operative. It's cold, moody and revels in backstabbing and double-crossing, two intricately explored traits of the spy genre. Full credit to Jennifer Lawrence who gives yet another committed performance, using her sexuality and serious acting talent to deliver the goods. The Sparrow School segment was intrusively interesting, Charlotte Rampling was ominous and brainwashes her pupils with such ferocity. Those scenes and the interrogations surprisingly raised the tension. Whilst I was never bored and thought the pacing was decent, I left the cinema disappointed. A character-driven story that presents no characters worth investing in. The constant need to purposefully put on Russian accents was a detriment to the outstanding talent on screen, as if these actors couldn't multi-task. The dialogue is rarely intelligent and injects no personality into these characters. The consequence of turning an espionage thriller into a mainstream blockbuster is that it sacrifices an intelligent story so that the average viewer can understand the plot, thus subjugating to monotony. The 140 minute runtime didn't bother me, and fortunately the third act elevates the much needed tension with a few twists and turns but ultimately I remained underwhelmed. I appreciate the acting, the daring sexual violence and the cold atmosphere, yet a bland story with minimal characterisation prevents an engrossing thriller. I just wanted more...

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD. While it is a bit long at 2+ hours it is told in an interesting manner and never seemed too long.

We both remarked that is has similarities to "La Femme Nikita" where a young lady with natural cunning is given a choice, but her only means of survival is to accept the job working for the agency.

Jennifer Lawrence is Russian ballet star Dominika Egorova. A tragic accident happens at the end of a performance, ending her career. But she gets a chance, really an order, to train as a Sparrow, which she terms a high class whore. To size up targets and infiltrate as a spy by giving them what they need.

As it turns out one target is Joel Edgerton as American spy Nate Nash, hustled out of Moscow when his Russian mole is almost caught. Invariably his mission gets tangled up with hers.

The other key character is played by Matthias Schoenaerts who is her uncle, . Vanya Egorov. It is a classic case of trying to figure out who is really on which side, as often a character has to use misdirection to accomplish a task.

We enjoyed it, an interesting and entertaining viewing.

Addressing the elephant in the room, there are moments in this movie that will leave you squirming in your seat. Normally this would be a major negative, but this is an intentional choice. For a movie with so much sex in it, little to none of it is hot or even sexy. I think this was a brave and chancy thing to show so much raw abuse and although it is graphic, it really underscores the traumatizing effect of what Dominika is subjected to. It is uncomfortable, but I think its more realistic than people want to admit. This is an adult movie dealing with adult themes and although there were times where I wanted to look away, it didn't dissuade me from wanting to see where Red Sparrow would go.

The other big criticism I hear when it comes to Red Sparrow is the running time. I don't hesitate to gripe about a movie when there's a lull in the middle or if they stretch the movie out another 15 minutes longer than they should, but I actually didn't think movie overstayed its welcome at all. There aren't many scenes that could have been cut or moments that didn't serve a purpose. If you were going in expecting Atomic Blonde, the lack of action might not be to your liking. But I never found Red Sparrow dull or poorly paced.

There isn't a ton of action in this movie but when this movie gets violent, you really feel it. Its raw, bloody and stomach churning. Its also done in a way that feels realistic and believable. There are some brutal torture methods and the hazing that Dominika and the Sector 4 students are subjected to doesn't pull any punches. The victims develop scars that they wear for the rest of the film (a nice touch that few movies do) and the discussions surrounding it are brash. But again, I enjoyed the fact that it felt a little closer to reality.

Jennifer Lawrence is still a top shelf actress but there's a chance of oversaturation developing with her celebrity status. I'm still of the opinion that she's one of the more talented lead actresses working and she does another fine job leading Red Sparrow. She's very reserved but she conveys Dominika's calculating nature and her shock and rage under a veil of indifference. She's powerful in drawing you into Dominika's story and all its rough parts. I would like to see her do this part again in a possible sequel. I'm a fan of Joel Edgerton but I didn't like him as much as Nate. But that may be more due to his character and I thought he got better as the movie went on. The surprise standout was Matthias Schoenaerts as Vanya. I've liked him in other movies, but it was normally in a thug like role. This was a big departure from that and he was great. Charlotte Rampling is suitably chilling as the Matron of Sector 4. Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds are great, you just have to ignore the iffy accents.

My issues with Red Sparrow were minor and most of them were resolved by the end. The first one was that it seemed like Dominika and Nate were given way too much leeway to be realistic. Both of them keep having setbacks and face very little blowback but the movie addresses that. You also have a couple of sub-par accents but I could look past that too.

Speaking of that ending, I was really pleased with the direction they went with. This was one of the few movies lately that was able to keep me guessing and the ambiguity surrounding Dominika's motivations was essential to keeping the viewer in the dark. I watch a lot of movies and for the movie to come up with a genuine surprise made me want to pat the scriptwriter and the author on the back.

I think that this was a risky property for the studio to back and despite the troublesome nature of the plot, this was a good spy movie. It's more Jason Bourne than James Bond but it even feels topical with all the gender politics in the news right now. I think the movie is empowering in the fact that Dominika faces all this difficulty (and I can't stress enough that she goes through a $#!T storm) and she's not just using her body to get through this, its her mind that's her most valuable asset. I wouldn't mind checking out a sequel and although I think this will be a divisive movie, I would still recommend it if you can handle the subject matter.

There is never a dull moment in the movie. JLaw did an amazing job although I am not much of a fan. I didn't care for her accent since she is speaking English in the movie anyway so who cares. For me her acting would have been as good without the accent as well. She portrays a cold and ruthless character and her expressions are enough to convey the message. Matthias Schoenaerts was also impressive. Ending took me by surprise. It could have been a much better movie if all Russian men were not portrayed as evil in the movie and all CIA as heroes and if graphic scenes were reduced. Nevertheless I found it more entertaining than Bond movies.