First Take: Red Sparrow- not so prima ballerina

SYNOPSIS:

Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to ‘Sparrow School,’ a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

When the trailer for this film came out, the internet went absolutely crazy for two reasons. One of them is obvious and won’t be mentioned, the other is the very close similarity to Marvel’s Black Widow character, but unfortunately, that comparison is weak now that Red Sparrow is here- and it’s with a heavy heart that I have to report that this film was super tedious to sit through.

Francis Lawrence is the man helming the directors chair on this film, and while he has experience creating very strong and powerful films with a female lead (his work on the Hunger Games films springs to mind), the pacing on this one is shocking, almost as much as the fact that this film SOMEHOW got a 15 certificate, and we’ll get to that in a minute. The script from Justin Haythe, adapted from Jason Matthews’ novel, is passable at best, with some clunky dialogue getting in the way of what could have been a good plot, but away from its errors, it is shot well by Jo Willems, and any score from James Newton Howard is a winner in my eyes.

Performance wise, Jennifer Lawrence puts in some great, but not outstanding work, and considering her career track record, I’m surprised that she would take this film above others- supporting her are some good talents including Joel Edgerton (who saved this film for me), Matthias Schoenarts and the always lovable Charlotte Rampling, but the real downer was the level of nudity, sexual references and gore that this film got away with. Sure, the BBFC ordered some cuts for the 15 certificate, but this still felt like an 18 rated film even with the trims to one particular scene.

THE VERDICT

This film frankly shouldn’t have been a 2 hour 19 minute production, it really does put the slow in to ‘slow burning thriller’. And considering that this is coming from the director that brought the Hunger Games saga to a close, this is shocking. Not only am I angry, but I am VERY, VERY disappointed.

RATING: 2/5