A Russian girl is sent to an underground military program that trains her to be a sexy, seductive spy. No, this isn’t an ‘R’ rated version of the Black Widow movie Marvel should’ve made a long time ago. It is an adaptation of a novel written by Jason Matthews with director Francis Lawrence (Hunger Games: Catching Fire) at the helm.
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika, a star ballerina who is forced to give up her life of dancing when she suffers a gruesome injury. In danger of losing health coverage for her ill mother (Joely Richardson), Dominika is coxed by her government head uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts) to enter the aforementioned spy program. As a sparrow, she is tasked with seducing an American CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) who is protecting the identity of a mole within the Russian government.
If you can get past her boorish Russian accent, Lawrence does a fair job. She holds her own in all of the brutal action sequences and certainly doesn’t skimp on the sexiness of the role. But Red Sparrow falls into some of the same listless doldrums that plagued 2016’s Atomic Blonde. The film, which carries on about a half hour too long, seems to take the scenic route in getting to its focal point and as such, it can easily make you lose interest.
The chemistry between Lawrence and Edgerton’s Nate Nash never feels genuine, which at times makes it hard to understand either character’s motivations in certain scenes. Throw in a needless subplot about extracting information from a U.S. chief of staff (Mary Louise-Parker), and the movie never quite satisfies as a spy thriller. It is certainly worth a watch if you’re into the genre, but years from now there won’t be much to remember this story by.
FINAL GRADE: C