Red Sparrow delivers a thinly plotted, gratuitous espionage thriller that fails to take off despite a strong cast (with some questionable accents)
At the end of Red Sparrow, the entire audience at the screening all physically recoiled when the screen cut to black. A few seconds after that, someone began to slow clap sarcastically and the entire audience together had a chuckle. The plot of the film is mystifying, to say the least. It has all the twists and turns you’d expect in an espionage thriller, but it seems that the film twists just because it feels like it. Not because it plays into a deeper plot. Though, it eventually tries to tie up loose ends in what really feels like an afterthought of a scene.
Red Sparrow doesn’t start that way, though. Its opening sequence is riveting. It’s a prime example of cinematic storytelling. Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) is a famed Russian ballerina and niece of Ivan Igorov (Matthias Schoenaerts), a high ranking official in Russian intelligence. We’re introduced to Dominika’s daily life, which includes caring for her ailing mother, Nina (Joely Richardson), and dancing in the ballet. This is all we know about her at this point (and the rest of the movie, honestly). We’re then introduced to Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton)… Yes, that’s his actual name. He’s preparing for a mysterious meeting with his contact, who is a mole in Russian intelligence. What was he going to achieve in the meeting? How did they get the mole? What information was the mole doing? None of this we know at this point (and the rest of the movie, honestly). The scenes begin to intercut. Nate prepares for his meeting while Dominika prepares for her performance. The dramatic score and artful cinematography make the scene engrossing. Nate’s meeting ends with his contact nearly being caught and Dominika’s performance ends with a career-ending injury. The pacing and editing of the scene are masterful, something the rest of the film aspires to but never reaches.
As she struggles to take care of her mother after her injury, Ivan forces Dominika into an ultimatum and sends her to become a Sparrow. Highly trained operatives of Russian Intelligence that specialize in seducing their targets to get information. She, as Dominika points out, is essentially going to whore school. This may be a good time to bring up 2017’s Atomic Blonde, another female-led espionage thriller. Without the gratuitous nudity and violence that Red Sparrow boasts, Atomic Blonde reads as a story of female empowerment. Through the Sparrow training scenes, it’s clear that the feminist gaze that views Charlize Theron’s character in Atomic Blonde is traded for a keenly male one that stalks Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow. It’s a key reason the film doesn’t work.
Matron (Charlotte Rampling) puts Dominika and the other recruits through grueling and cruel training sessions that teach them how to read the desires of their targets and exploit them, often sexually. Rampling is great as the ruthless headmistress and delivers key information about why Red Sparrow should be relevant in today’s environment, however, these scenes are shortlived to the detriment of the film. These are the only scenes in place to convince of Dominika’s natural talent as a Sparrow, however, all they tell us instead is that she knows how to pick a lock.
She’s quickly swept away on a mission to make contact with Nash, gain his trust, and find out who his contact is. A lot of things happen in between involving an odd but hilarious Mary Louise-Parker cameo, brutal torture, a lot of double-crossing, and a lot of bad Russian accents, but demystifying the plot of Red Sparrow may be the real thrill of the movie. It feels as if the screenwriter and director Francis Lawrence — he directed Jennifer Lawrence in the last three Hunger Games movies — had ideas and plot points and set pieces that never ultimately fit together. Everything ends up feeling muddled, characters included. Though Cirian Hinds, Jeremy Irons, and Sakina Jaffrey do the best they can with what little they’re given in supporting roles
Red Sparrow thinks its a smarter movie than it is. The plot of Atomic Blonde is admittedly nonsensical, but it makes up for it with characters the jump off the screen and some of the best action set pieces in years. Red Sparrow had neither. The central relationship between Nash and Dominika, which should be a driving force behind the film, feels like an afterthought. Even with violence and enough nudity and sex to make Tarantino blush, the film doesn’t even succeed in the exploitation genre. That opening scene is kinetic, thrilling, and beautiful. In contrast, the rest of the movie chugs along in a dull fashion. If only the talent onscreen was given the material they deserve.
★★ out of 5
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.