Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow is a great example of how my movie watching habits have changed over the past few years. Back in the day when I was in college and not sporting a full time job, I would have gone to see Red Sparrow in the theaters because the trailer looked really good. I probably would have made it a point to go out and see the movie probably on day one or at least the weekend it came out. Instead I let it pass and got it on Redbox and now I'm here reminiscing on a time where I had a lot more free time to go to the movie theater more often... that was a good time....

Red Sparrow follows the story of Dominika Egorova (played by Jennifer Lawrence. She is a famous ballerina until a career ending accident. She needs to take care of her ailing mother but can not longer do that due to her injury. It is at that time when she is approached by her uncle, a ranking member in the Russian intelligence service (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) and he gives her the opportunity to take care of her mother by joining the Russian intelligence services and becoming a Red Sparrow, an agent who utilizes sex and seduction to gather information on foreign targets.

Dominika attends a school for Red Sparrows and learns the trade in a brutal and raw fashion. Something to note is that this movie is pretty graphic and rate R for a reason. I don't think it ever becomes too gratuitous personally, but you might. It's a spy thriller based around agents that use seduction, be prepared for a lot of violence, some torture, and some sex/nudity.

 On the other side of things, you have Nate Nash (played by Joel Edgerton), a CIA officer running informants in Moscow. He is run out of Russia when his informant is almost revealed and the Russia intelligence services are looking to find out who that mole is the entire movie.

Nash and Dominika's path's cross when she is assigned to use her skills to seduce him and figure out who the mole is. The two develop an uneasy relationship and the movie's intention at least is to make you question who Dominika's loyalties actually lie.

Now before I talk about the things that I like about this movie, I do have to talk about a huge glaring issue I had with this film and that is this question of where her loyalties lie because it's never really a huge mystery. I think there is inklings that it could be in question but it's pretty obvious. Now I don't think that breaks the movie, I still thoroughly enjoyed this film and partly because it didn't match what I was expecting it to be, and therefore unpredictable. But by being unpredictable based on the trailer, the movie became pretty predictable. It's a weird predictability cycle. The other issue comes when the movie becomes a little muddled in what its trying to accomplish.

The movie has a lot of side plots that don't add a whole lot and again, it kind of builds into this illusion they tried to set up where you don't really know what Dominika is going to, but it does get a little washed out in what could be a stellar spy thriller.

The unfortunate part is that the plot of this movie can be deduced from the trailer. But I will say it wasn't the ending I expected it to be. I thought they were going to pull an Ex Machina and put a lot of the emphasis on how in the end it's really the game she's playing with everyone else while they think they're using her to play their games. I thought that instead of there being a definite side that Dominika is on in the end, she would come out doing what's best for herself and tossing aside perceived relationships in order for her to come out with the best outcome for her in the end. It wasn't really like that.

That being said, while it doesn't have the best conclusion I think it could have, I still really, REALLY liked this movie.

This movie just highlights what people already know, that Jennifer Lawrence is a force of nature when it comes to acting and she's only getting better the farther into her career she goes. While her Russian accent is occasionally spotty, Red Sparrow gives us a look into a woman trying to come out from under a system that utilizes and abuses her and her body for their own personal gain. Contrary to some beliefs that this is just the Black Widow origin story we've been looking for, Lawrence is not some martial arts master in the movie, she gets her ass beat a couple times. But she's able to use her wits and manipulative abilities to get what she wants and beat others psychologically. She gives a really good performance in a role that is raw.

And I really liked Joel Edgerton in this movie. Furthermore, I liked Lawrence and Edgerton in this movie. I think there could have been some more time to develop their relationship for a bigger payoff in the end but I do think the two of them work really well as individuals working in a profession that requires deception and manipulation.

There are some other good performances from Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, and some other actors you might recognize from shows like Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and others, but the focus is mostly on Lawrence and Edgerton and they had me engaged the entire time.

And I think that's the most important thing with a movie like this. Given some time, I do recognize that this movie is not perfect or going to be competitive for any kind of awards later this year, but I was engrossed in the film from start to finish and any issues that I thought of after the fact didn't really affect me during my viewing.

Personally, I actually kind of like movies like this. No movie is going to be perfect and anybody can find the faults in a film if they're looking for it. The whole point of this blog is to point out those flaws and decide if the movie is good or not. But sometimes I forget to look at the bottom line question: was I entertained by this movie and would I recommend it to other movie goers? In the case of Red Sparrow, the answer is unequivocally yes. I think the performances, director direction, and execution of the story does override the writing and messy plot. I think it's a solid spy thriller and worth at the very least checking out on Redbox.

But those are my thoughts on Red Sparrow. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts as well as requests for films I should review in the future to my Twitter @MovieSymposium. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thank you for reading!