When the trailers for Red
Sparrow started popping up, rumors almost immediately began circulating that
this was a proposed script for a Black Widow solo movie since they have more
than a few common factors but was turned down and made into its own thing. On
one hand, I see where they’re coming from. There is more than a little overlap
between the plot of this movie and Black Widow’s origin story (an unorthodox Russian
spy academy, a crucial plot point set in Budapest etc.). But there are few
things that immediately dispel those rumors. First of all, this was based on a
book written by someone who worked for the CIA, and secondly, I highly doubt
Disney and Marvel would greenlight a movie where the female protagonist spends
a good chunk of her screen time being beaten, raped and sexually humiliated.
Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.
Our story follows Dominka Erogova (Jennifer Lawrence), a
Russian ballerina whose career is dashed when she suffers a humiliating onstage
accident. Struggling to make ends meet while she heals and takes care of her
sick mother, she’s enlisted by her KGB uncle Vanya (Mathias Schoenaerts) to
become a “Sparrow”, an elite agent who’s a master of seduction and
psychological manipulation. She becomes exceedingly good at it, having already
demonstrated a capability for violence, even if she’s sickened by the training
she’s put through and the sleazy targets she’s set up with. Eventually she
catches the attention of an American CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) who discovers
her true identity and believes her skills can be used to their advantage.
The angle the movie seems to be going for is a genre deconstructionist
piece exploring the “seductress” trope that has pervaded the spy genre since
the days of James Bond. Ever wondered what kind of training they probably had
to go through to acquire to get these kinds of skills? According to this movie,
it’s not as sexy as it sounds. They’re not so much trained in forbidden secrets
of the pleasures of the flesh, and more taught (or in some cases disciplined) how
not to gag when they have to go down on some vile creep and endure brutal
assault for the sake of the mission. Jennifer Lawrence even gets naked in this
(in a way that’s not illegal), but the nudity is presented in a way designed to
punish you for leering. There’s a fine line to walk when deconstructing this
kind of exploitative subject matter without outright indulging in it yourself,
and it definitely falters more than a few times.
Unfortunately, the movie isn’t as interested in that. When
it remembers that it needs a plot to connect the various sexy times together,
it comes up with a series of double and triple crosses that’s twisty to the
point of convoluted even for a Cold War spy thriller. It has a lot in common
with Atomic Blonde, another spy
thriller starring a sexy secret agent who uses her looks to get information,
but whereas that movie at least had the best action scene of the summer as payoff,
this one blows its load early. After a while it becomes hard to keep track of
who’s who and who their alliance is really with, all taking part in missions we
don’t care about with stakes that are never made clear, dragged mercilessly
over its grueling 139-minute runtime. Apparently, they were all trying to find
a mole, but it all becomes moot when he gives himself up, and even then, it’s
not that hard to spot him. Mary Louise Parker shows up as a liquored up informant
who provides them with crucial information, which I guess was this movie’s attempt
at adding comic relief, but just felt incredibly out of place.
Bottom line, Red
Sparrow is a dark, sleazy throwback to the Cold War era spy flick when it
works, and a dull slog when it doesn’t. While some of the kinkier scenes will
remain in your head (whether it be for the right or wrong reasons), the rest
will evaporate from your mind as soon as you leave the theater. The reason this
review took so long yet came up so short wasn’t because of outside forces, but
because I struggled to find anything worth remembering. Final verdict, go see Annihilation.
5/10, skip it.
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