Checked out the new Jennifer Lawrence-led spy movie Red Sparrow tonight. It’s a dull, boring movie that tries to be seductive and sexy but face-plants badly.
Set in Russia during what, at first, seems like the 80s (until someone starts talking about social media), Lawrence plays a ballerina who is forced into a Sex Spy school in order to, I dunno, spy on the West. With sex spying. She then spends a lot of time in a generic spy film, sometimes sex spying, sometimes getting raped, fondled, tortured, and antagonized in various ways. Pretty sure this movie earns its R rating… what with all the sex spying.
Let’s talk about sex spies. Lawrence is sent to this bootcamp for seduction and manipulation (Sex Spy school). The movie clearly wants to be provocative and adult with some explicit lessons on sex acts and nudity (of the J. Law and the full-frontal male kind). It’s sordid and exploitative when I think they were shooting for transgressive and sexy. They don’t make movies like this any more, the movie seems to be saying… and that’s fair. They don’t. But the film’s approach really just felt tawdry.
Anyhow, after failing out of sex spy school after a month, she’s sent undercover without any weapons training, espionage training, or pretty much anything but a few tips on seduction and I guess her mad ballerina skillz. It’s one huge flaw in the movie… laughably bad, really. And I’m not sure the movie realized the mistake. But that’s just in-line with the Lawrence character… someone with little agency or authority over most of her actions or the plot. Which I guess is a bit of the theme… her body is owned by The State. Sure. Fine. Doesn’t make her a compelling lead.
I give the movie credit for one thing at least… this is a spy movie and not an action movie pretending to be a spy movie. It’s all about the seduction, back-stabbing, double agents, investigation, turncoats, etc. It tells a complete, twisty story that does run too long, but at least it isn’t a simplistic plot. This does mean there’s an amazing (and somewhat commendable) lack of action. Maybe one fight scene, no car chases, or anything else. It focuses heavily on dialog and character-driven scenes which I’d normally commend… if it wasn’t so stiflingly boring.
The acting in the flick is a little dodgy – lots of wobbly Russian accents. Jennifer Lawrence is playing an emotionless robot most of the time (she does open up in the final act) so its hard to really feel one way or another for her. Her accent comes and goes but Jeremy Irons is in it too and his accent is equally wobbly.
This is a 2hr 10min snoozefest that at least does try to do something different in today’s blockbuster movie ecosphere. It doesn’t do anything particularly well… it’s just dreary, stone-cold serious, and full of sex spying that feels more gross and laughable than transgressive or edgy. I highly recommend seeing something else. Watch Atomic Blond – an 80s based spy movie with some cool action scenes and a character with motivation and agency.
Score: 62