Review of Red Sparrow (2018) by Viniciusbrito — 26 Jul 2018

A russian young girl that trained to be a ballet dancer wich was her purpose in life, which made her special at that time, but after a injury her carreer is over and impossibility she to dance again. Then in order to help she and her mom to have a decent life, she got a invitation to get in a school to become a sparrow by her uncle, that school trained her to be a sparrow, agents that work for someone in favor of get information with the sensuality, approaching of targets using her body. Based on a book and directed by Francis Lawrence.

The story of this movie goes in a slow rhythm, it does have a dark aspect and emotionless. I liked the tension that was in the story, and it made me believe that pretty much everyone was in dangerous, not exactly made care about them, but did me believe that anyone could go any time, by any stumbling. The core of the movie is very interesting, and the way that they explored it was very good, showing her training, and demonstrating how did she learn those things was very good. The big problem is that the movie tries to imply a confidence and assurance that really comes out of nowhere, things that happened to fast and didn't felt organic or natural, it felt rushed and even senseless, wich is curious considering that the movie have 150 minutes, that's a lot of time and still things felt out of palce, crucial things, a character that was supose to be rival with the other and just start to believe in the other out of nothing felt really wrong and took me out of the movie. The story goes in a way that during it a lot of things happens that doesn't make sense at all and feel dislocated, but at the very end it is explained and combined it does, wich I like. It does have some plot twists, and the movie kind of tried to make the viewer not to be sure if the character was in one side or other, wich I also liked.

The acting wasn't a high point in this movie, even considering that the film was indeed with a purpose of emotionless, but I really don't buy it in every moment. Jennifer Lawrence character was the perfect example of emotionless, she didn't had much faces in this movie other than that poker face, she could show fear in some moments, but normally, in moments that she should pass me a woman that is looking to care of someone, in her eyes or voice tones, she didn't delievery this other part, just seemed to be a wall. Joel Edgerton also didn't had much expressions, but I could buy him caring about other characters, and his devotion into a purpose, it didn't convinced me 100% but it wasn't bad. Matthias Schoenaerts was kind of the older relative, that always had advice, he was a little threatening and I believe that he did a good job. Charlotte Rampling, showed confidence and was certain about she was talking, I completely bought what she was talking, she did very well. Jeremy Irons doesn't have a lot of screen time, but the little he convinced me, he was cautious and it convinced me.

The cinematography of the movie don't talk much to us and isn't the most pretty neither, but is worked in some moments and helped to creat this emotionless scenario. There are some moments that the character are explaining what they are going to do and are already showing the thing happening, that was very nice. The soundtrack isn't memorable and doesn't call much attention neither.

The movie makes everybody talk english with a russian accent, sometimes that didn't worked out, it was like if they just forgot about it in some scenes. The movie also forgets some characters that they had. The movie have problems of continuity, it does have sequences that doesn't take nothing to nowhere, comes with some really uninteresting things, and that took me out of the movie sometimes as well. The character does not have layers, taking away one or two. There is the villain and there is the hero, and you needed to choose between them.

The movie also in some moments have a nice mystery, it does have some sequences that are really entertaining, it does have some nice twists and tense moments, it does have a nice editing. The intensity of what happens is really high, it is brutal, it can be gore or even make you want to turn your head in some moments, it does have some triggers that keeped me interested in it, and have a nice ending connecting things that happened before, even if some are a little forced.

This is a thriller of espionage that doesn't have much new, and have a bunch of flaws, but definely have some good things right there.