Review of The Rhythm Section (2020) by Markhreviews — 14 Feb 2020

In his first screenwriting effort, Mark Burnell seeks to expand the action movie genre. He and Director Reed Morano (“The Handmaid’s Tale” TV series) succeed, but only partially. “The Rhythm Section” is based on the book by the same name, one of four in Burnell’s series of Stephanie Patrick novels.

As the film opens, Stephanie (Blake Lively) is a drug-addled prostitute grieving the loss of all her immediate family in a plane crash. An investigative journalist informs Stephanie that there was a bomb on the plane. Stephanie decides to pull herself together and go after those responsible. Along the way, she’s mentored and trained by the enigmatic “B,” (Jude Law). Mayhem ensues.

“The Rhythm Section” uses two structural elements to push the boundaries of the genre. First, it’s an action movie where there’s no real action in the first 50% of the film. This creates the risk that the typical adrenaline-obsessed audience member will become bored. But it also creates the opportunity for actual character development. There’s time for Stephanie to discover her resolve, realize that she’s not very good at being a killer and, over time, improve. This is actually a refreshing shift from the boxer who does four push-ups, runs up the steps of the Philly Art Museum and is fully prepared to fight for the world championship. (Yeah, I went there.).

The second structural difference is that Stephanie, instinctively, is not a very good killer. This allows Morano and Burnell to frame her initial assignment in a very non-traditional way, focusing on her sheer terror, not giving her the cold, emotionally distant competence we’ve come to expect from these characters. In that sense, Stephanie becomes less superhero and more Everyman. It’s an interesting premise – what would happen if the average person decided to train to kill people.

Lively and the supporting cast are first-rate. Lively’s performance makes a strength of her character’s inner contradictions. Jude Law goes against type, taking a break from playing the Pope (“The Young Pope,” “The New Pope,” “Pope Springs Eternal”) and Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick. Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us” TV series) takes a break from hunky vulnerability to embrace a role which suggests that males, shockingly, are not always emotionally accessible. The problem with “The Rhythm Section” is that it ultimately will frustrate almost everybody. People wanting and expecting an action movie won’t have the patience to wade through all this character development. People coming for an atmospheric character study will find the last half of the film much too predictable. Hence its box office bust.

Having said all that, this is the type of film that deserves interest, not condescension for its obvious flaws. We say we want Hollywood to offer rethinking of a genre and not reboots, character development and not just cartoons.