Today’s quick review: Red Sparrow. After an accident ends her ballet career, Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) accepts her uncle Vanya’s (Matthias Schoenaerts) offer to work for Russian intelligence in exchange for her mother’s medical care. Following a brutal training period, Dominika is sent to Budapest for her first assignment: to seduce CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) and get him to give up the name of a highly-placed American mole.
Red Sparrow is a gritty spy thriller about a Russian ballerina who transforms herself into a deadly intelligence agent. Bit by bit, Dominika has to give up her humanity to survive in a profession where even the tiniest bit of compassion could prove fatal. Red Sparrow does a good job of expanding on this core theme. The hunt for Nash’s mole tests Dominika in every conceivable way, resulting in a harrowing spy thriller with an unpredictable plot.
Red Sparrow is not a movie for the faint of heart. Tonally, the movie is quite bleak. Dominika is immediately dropped into a no-win situation, and it only gets worse from there. Red Sparrow does not shy away from the trials Dominika must endure, showing disturbing sex scenes and explicit torture. Even without its mature content, Red Sparrow is set in a cutthroat world that has none of the adventure or glamor typically found in the spy genre.
The audience’s reward for enduring this cruelty is a well-crafted story that saves its best twist for last. Red Sparrow always has an immediate threat for Dominika to deal with, whether it’s the rigors of her training or betrayal by her peers. The constant shifts in the status quo keep the tension high as the movie maneuvers for its finale. Still, Red Sparrow can be too ambiguous for its own good; it is hard to tell what Dominika’s actual goals are.
Red Sparrow is a solid pick for anyone with the stomach for it. The stakes are high, the ending is intellectually satisfying, and Dominika’s character shows resilience and ingenuity. But the sheer volume of heavy subject matter makes the movie a hard one to get through, while the lack of true catharsis keeps its weightier scenes from every fully digesting. Those looking for something dark and cerebral may want to try it, but should approach with caution.
For a moodier story about the training of a female spy, check out La Femme Nikita. For a more action-packed spy movie involving a double agent, try Atomic Blonde, Anna, or Salt. For a slightly more sanitized spy thriller in a similar vein, try Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. For a psychological horror movie about the fraying mind of a ballerina, try Black Swan.
6.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a dark but well-crafted story.