Review of Red Sparrow (2018) by Jerry S — 03 Mar 2018

Red Sparrow is the new film starring Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina whose career is ruined by a badly broken leg and whose uncle extorts her to then join a honey pot spy program in order to keep her sick mother cared for. In this program people are taught to control their targets through whatever means will work, whether it is sex and blackmail or money. Her first target is a US agent, played by Joel Edgerton, who had himself turned a Russian official to the American side and she is to find out who the mole is. Twists and turns galore result. Jeremy Irons and May-Louise Parker play smaller, but important parts and are always a delight to watch at work.

This is, at times, a film containing graphic brutality and sex in service to the story. It is not filled with over the top action scenes like John Wick and Atomic Blonde. It relies more on character and dialogue, but where there are action pieces, they are certainly well done. There are many coincidences and more plot holes than swiss cheese at times, but the characters kept me interested and wondering what position they would end up in at the end.

Jennifer Lawrence once again shows that when she is not in a franchise film, she shines. I enjoyed this film and am quite glad I saw it. It's not a must see film, but still worth seeing.