Review of Red Sparrow (2018) by R P — 20 Mar 2018
Had I known the basic premise of the move and the existing reviews I probably would not have bothered to see Red Sparrow in the theatre - a friend persuaded me to see it on the spur of the moment.
It is a visually pleasing movie - well except for the scenes of vicious torture - and Jennifer Lawrence is beautiful to watch. Other than that, the film brings absolutely nothing new to the genre of spy thrillers except for plenty of nudity and graphic violence and torture.
The characters are not very developed and the plot seemed a mixture of cliches that almost leaned towards parody. The scenes at the Red Sparrow "Whore School" (Jennifer Lawrence's character's (Dominika) exact words to describe the training camp) were so painful to watch that people in the theatre were laughing.
The convoluted plot also doesn't try very hard to be believable - for example Joel Edgarton is a supposedly seasoned US spy ("Nate Nash" - yes that really is the character's name) is so easily convinced of Jennifer Lawrence's character's sincerity - even though he knows she is part of the elite "seductress spy" Red Sparrows - that the audience is left to wonder about the state of the US spy program. Their sex scenes are abrupt and sadly very unsexy.
Jennifer Lawrence is known to be an ardent feminist which makes her selection of this role that much more disappointing. Here is yet another story of a helpless woman forced into what is basically prostitution and she uses her sexuality as her power. She is sexually assaulted and tortured and beaten - we get 2 or 3 scenes of her using concealer to cover her bruises. Yes, she does get to fight back twice, but in this day and age, can't we possibly get a strong female lead that isn't highly sexualized and victimized.
Well, at least they let her get back at her uncle by the end of the movie - a predictable ending with an overly complicated plot device to give viewers something to wonder about other than why they were watching the movie in the first place.
This review of Red Sparrow (2018) was written by R P on 20 Mar 2018.
Red Sparrow has generally received mixed reviews.
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