Review of Red Sparrow (2018) by Joshua S — 27 Mar 2018
Falling a bit short of above-average, Red Sparrow tells the tale of an injured Russian ballerina who is forced into the role of a lower level spy and doomed to participate in dangerous honey-pot schemes.
Her mission leads her to a disgraced CIA agent, as the Sparrow attempts to uncover a western-friendly mole that has been in the Kremlin for decades. While Red Sparrow is certainly a Hard-R spy film for its graphic sex and violence, it generally moves at a leisurely pace and features no real action scenes, which may surprise and annoy casual movie-goers.
Sparrow does do that silly Hollywood thing which has British and American actors sporting Russian accents that I thought had went away after the aughts. But the performances rise above this issue and it doesn't become too distracting.
Jennifer Lawrence's reputation has taken a beating as of late, but she more than holds her own, in a character that must have demanded much of her physically and emotionally. It is interesting, the various masks the Sparrow puts on for the many different people she interacts with.
Joel Edgerton is probably known as "that guy" to most audiences, but he excels here as an everyman who is NOT in over his head. It's hard not to compare Red Sparrow with Atomic Blonde, another recent spy thriller with a female lead that didn't connect with audiences.
As where Atomic Blonde tried to mix high-brow John le Carré style Cold War espionage with impressive but trashy action, Red Sparrow doesn't bother with either and aims straight down the middle and softly hits the mark, just shy of a bullseye.
But that ignores the problem doesn't it? Audiences in recent years will tolerate the occasional intelligent spy picture, such as the Bourne trilogy or the Daniel Craig-era Bond entries, but increasingly prefer the likes of Salt, Mission Impossible 32, or Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Plus, I'm sure most people were holding out for the Black Widow solo movie they've been asking for years. Think I'm kidding?
This review of Red Sparrow (2018) was written by Joshua S on 27 March 2018.
Red Sparrow has generally received mixed reviews.
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