Red Sparrow ** ½ / *****
Directed by: Francis Lawrence.
Written by: Justin Haythe based on the novel by Jason Matthews.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence (Dominika Egorova), Joel Edgerton (Nathaniel Nash), Matthias Schoenaerts (Vanya Egorov), Charlotte Rampling (Matron), Mary-Louise Parker (Stephanie Boucher), Ciarán Hinds (Zakharov), Joely Richardson (Nina), Bill Camp (Marty Gable), Jeremy Irons (Korchnoi), Thekla Retuen (Marta), Douglas Hodge (Maxim Volontov), Sakina Jaffrey (Trish Forsythe).
The fundamental problem that Red Sparrow is never able to overcome is that it is a movie entirely about its plot, and yet its plot doesn’t really matter. You never really feel that all that much is at stake during the runtime, because the movie never really tells you what exactly is at stake. All we really know is a Russian spy, Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) has been assigned to go to Budapest to cozy up to an American spy, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) to find out who Nash’s mole inside Russian intelligence is. Since we don’t know what this mole does, or what information he is providing, we never really know what will happen if the mole is exposed. In theory, it shouldn’t matter – it should be a classic McGuffin, in which it doesn’t matter to the audience why it matters to the characters, just that we know it does. Yet, it’s hard to find anything else to hold onto in the movie. It’s a movie that wants to keep you guessing as to whether or not Lawrence’s character is going to sell out her country for America, or whether she’s playing the American spy for Mother Russia. It jerks you around so much that you end up not caring at all. What’s worse, the movie has little in the way of action or suspense set pieces, and with a runtime over two hours, it’s more than a little bit of a grueling slog.
Before we even get to all that spy craft, we first have to watch as Lawrence’s Dominika is molded and degraded into becoming a spy in the first place. She is, as the film opens, a prima ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet – but a horrific injury ends her career. With a dead father, sick mother, and no other job skills – she has no choice but to accept the offer of her Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts – it’s been a while since I’ve seen a version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya so I won’t go delve into why the film felt the need to have such an obvious character name) when he enlists her to do a job for him. He’s a high ranking intelligence officer, and wants to get close to a very rich man – who had eyes for Dominika as a dancer. All she has to do is get close, and get his phone. Things, of course, don’t play out that way – and she’s given another impossible choice – take a bullet in the back of the head, or go to Sparrow School – which she will call (not incorrectly) Whore School – to learn how to seduce anyone. Find their weak spots, and exploit them. She is apparently so good at this that she’s pulled out early to be sent to Budapest.
Red Sparrow is an odd movie. In many ways, it feels like an exploitation movie – this is a movie in which Lawrence is raped, tortured, beaten, stripped and engages in consensual sexual activity as well. The film takes itself so seriously though that all these scenes feel cruel. The elements of the film that could have been made into an erotic thriller a la Brian DePalma featuring Lawrence and Edgerton don’t really work either – as talented as both of them as actors, they share almost zero chemistry. The major sex scenes between the two of them is over is about as much time as the one in Lady Bird – that was the joke in Lady Bird, that the teenage boy finished so quickly – I don’t know what it says in Red Sparrow.
What almost saves the movie is the supporting cast more than the leads. I’d watch an entire movie about Mary Louise Parker’s character – the Chief of Staff of a US Senator, who is selling sensitive information. She is drunk the entire time, and a hell of a lot of fun, and the entire extended sequence involving her is easily the best in the movie – the one time when the suspense of the film is truly humming at the level it should. Charlotte Rampling also comes and goes too quickly as Matron – the head of Sparrow School, who emotionlessly tells them that “your bodies belong to the state”. Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds show up as well, so you expect them to do more than they do – but are fine when they’re there. I liked Matthias Schoenaerts’ performance as Uncle Vanya as well, even if his character makes little to no sense.
The director of the film is Francis Lawrence, who directed Jennifer Lawrence in the last three Hunger Games movies, and the two clearly have a trusting relationship between director and star. Here, though, they don’t really find the right material. The story goes on too long, and because Lawrence (the director) has decided to direct the whole movie in the muted, depressing tones of a cold war spy movie, with none of the excitement, the film just kind of goes through the motions. Lawrence, the actress, really commits to the role (if not the accent, entirely, which comes and goes). There’s just not much here to make it all worthwhile.
