The Rhythm Section

As this thriller opens we see a woman enter a building and point a pistol at an unsuspecting man... the action then jumps back eight months. The woman, Stephanie Patrick, is working as a prostitute in London. She is approached by a reporter who tells her that the death of her parents in a plane crash three years previously was no accident. It was brought down by a bomb and he knows who made it; that person is in London. She buys a gun, intending to kill the bomber but can't go through with it. When she returns to the report's flat she finds him dead. Her only lead is the reporter's ex-MI-6 contact. She tracks him down in the Highlands and he eventually agrees to train her... taking the identity of a dead assassin she starts to hunt those behind the bombing. It won't be easy though; unlike her targets she isn't a natural killer.

I thought this was a decent addition to the revenge thriller genre. The early scenes quickly introduce us to the character of Stephanie and her motives. The scenes of her training in Scotland are solid enough but do go on a bit longer than really necessary, slowing the film down somewhat. Once she has started going after her targets things improve markedly. There is plenty of tension and a feeling that she is in real danger. It helps that, far from being an unstoppable professional, she is a barely competent amateur who is merely good enough and gets lucky. Blake Lively does a really solid job as Stephanie and Jude Law is good as the man she goes to for help; the rest of the cast are fairly impressive too. The film looks great with plenty of interesting locations. Overall I'd not say this was a must see but I did enjoy it so would recommend it to fans of the genre.

This movie is not getting the reviews it deserves no way is this a rating of a 5 more like a 6 or 7. Very well done. Someone don't become a bad ass over night like in Peppermint movie. I found it to be more realistic then most. I hope to see a part 2 now that she hone her skill in part 1. But if they don't make a part 2 it was still a very good movie. Give it a try you won't be sorry if you know good movies.

The Rhythm Section, for all intents and purposes is and functions (however poorly) as a revenge genre film. The problem with the movie lies in the fact that in spite of a meager attempt at training our would-be assassin for 8 months, she has the skills of you, the movie goer. Now imagine yourself as an international assassin. That's about how good she is. So If you think you'd enjoy seeing the beautiful Blake Lively get her ask kicked by 10 people, this is the movie for you. It's almost like reverse action. I've never quite seen anything so one-sided before, and it seriously makes me wonder why it was even made.

This is not Peppermint.

In "The Rhythm Section", Blake Lively stars as Stephanie, a grief-stricken drug addict who discovers her family's tragic deaths were not what they seemed. She sets out to find answers and justice. It's an intriguing if familiar premise, but is it worth watching?

The Good

The film has a small cast but it's leading lady carries the load easily. Blake Lively continues her upward trajectory after strong turns in "The Shallows" (2016) and "A Simple Favor" (2018). She gives a wounded performance as Stephanie, a woman whose spirit died along with her family; a still-living victim of a tragedy. Everything from her gaze to how she carries herself screams brokenness. I also liked Jude Law as Boyd, an ex MI6 recluse. He's a hard-ass mentor figure for Stephanie as he attempts to give her skills to survive on her quest for revenge. He's like Obi-Wan Kenobi if Old Ben was a jerk. He provides a more harsh, stark view of the situation, reality-checking Stephanie again and again.

Another aspect of Stephanie I enjoyed was how inefficient she is as an assassin. After she completes her training and heads into the world to seek vengeance she proves to be rather ineffective. I thought she would finish training and immediately turn into a ruthless expert killer, but she proves to not be cut out for it. She lacks the moral numbness and skill to pull it off, which makes her more relatable. There's also a cool chase scene that's a continuous shot from within the vehicle. It's shot well and accompanied by a good score at times. I also appreciated the color pallet of the film, lots of muted, cold colors to reflect the bleak outlook of our protagonist.

The Bad

The movie has a good first act, setting up an intriguing revenge tale that fizzles out in the second. We never get to know Stephanie, she isn't given character development. She has a goal that she desperately wants to fulfill but she doesn't change as a result of achieving that goal. She's the same character by the end as she was in the beginning, only she's sober now. When a revenge film like this lacks action and style it must make up for that with character and story, and it fails on both counts. Altogether, it feels like connecting dots that never create a cohesive image.

The talented Sterling K Brown is dragged into this to give information and wear glasses. He never feels like a character, he's more of a plot device. The score is good in a few scenes, but the soundtrack is off. Thirty seconds of a Velvet Underground song here and a Brenda Lee song there for fifteen seconds. It's like hitting shuffle on a varied playlist at random times. I also wish the filmmaker leaned less on flashbacks. They could have relied on the leading lady to convey the loss she feels rather than reusing the same flashback scene over and over. The script lacks emotional depth and consists mostly of exposition being traded between characters.

The Verdict

I don't recommend seeing "The Rhythm Section". While it has a strong lead performance, the character and her story are never fleshed out, creating a rather empty experience. The film does offer a unique take on the femme fatale genre, but that's not enough to hold it up. The film is overlong and rather dull. Despite an intriguing start it never goes anywhere, and there's not much fun along the way to make up for it's lacking. It unravels into near-incoherence by the end, at which point you won't really care. You'll just wish you saw "1917" again. I wouldn't worry about seeing this one, even on Netflix.

For an action film about a female killer, this film is pretty dull. It tries to tell a story of an average girl becoming a fully fledged killer, but it is not convincing at all. There is little suspense, forgettable characters and the acting is not very good either.