Earlier this week, I went to the cinema to see a new movie, The Red Sparrow starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts (a Belgian actor who also played in The Danish Girl, Far from the Madding Crowd) and many famous actors that you would obviously have seen in other movies. It is directed by Francis Lawrence (Jennifer and he are not related in case you were wondering as me) and adapted from the novel from Jason Matthew. The movie has been recently rehearsed in theaters since March in Belgium.
First, let's talk about the plot before I give you my impressions on the movie:
We are in the nowadays Russia with a character named Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), she's a young ballet dancer who sees her brilliant career ends with a fall that left her a terrible wound. She's been recruited by her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts) who works for the Russian secret services by leaving her no choice in fact. From then on, she is trained in a kind of spying school for young boys and ladies that teaches them how to use their body and charm as weapons. As she learns to become a "sparrow", she discovers her power and becomes one of the best agents. Finally, she is sent to America to spy on an undercover agent of the CIA, Nathaniel Nash (Joel Edgerton), a kind of manipulation and seduction game begins between them...
Spoilers alert! From now on, I will talk about what I thought of this movie by making references to elements of all the plot, so if you haven't seen it yet, don't read it now and skip to the conclusion in case you just want an idea of what the movie is about!
The movie begins softly with some scenes of the everyday life of the main character, Dominika, as a ballet dancer and young city inhabitant. Then, the end of her dancer career comes with her fall schemed by her male partner and some jealous female colleague. We discover a really aggressive Jennifer Lawrence as she finds out the plot and beats both of them until unconsciousness.
She and her mother find themselves in a kind of precarious situation since she lost her job. As a result, her uncle, Ivan Dimitrevitch Egorov, proposes to her a mission for the Russian secret services which consists in appealing some man and steals something from him. But he gets himself killed as he is trying to rape Dominika, she's now the witness of a crime and finds herself trapped by the Russian secret services. She's dragged to a school to learn how to become a sparrow, meaning to use her body and her seduction's power to manipulate.
From the beginning of the movie, the scenes of nudity and sex are constantly present but intensify as she is following her "sparrow" training. I was quite shocked by the scenes mixing violence and sex, it was so unexpected to be presented as if it was something normal and legitimate.
She rapidly becomes the best agent since she understands fast how to use her attributes and how to analyze the wants of a person. Her superiors see that potential and send her to America to spy on the C.I.A. agent, Nathaniel Nash. I found this part of the movie a bit obvious, the eternal scheme of the character falling in love with the person she/he is not supposed to fall in love with. What is interesting here is that we don't really know until the end if they are truly sincere to each other.
But the end is, again, really predictable about this part. I was also disappointed because I thought I would have seen more action and fights. Of course, there is action but not as many as I would have expected. It's more a movie about manipulation, seduction, outreaching the limits of violence and sexual depravity than an action movie about spying. Nevertheless, the end contains more action than the beginning as Dominika tries to trap the Russian secret services and the C.I.A. to their own game. I would recommend giving a particular attention at this moment because it's difficult to understand fully the plot if you don't pay attention (true story).
Even if it is not the best movie I have seen of spying, I found it interesting and pleasant to see for a cinema night out. I deplore the obvious scheme for the romantic relationship, but I enjoyed the manipulations and plots which were unexpected and well-constructed. To end with a little touch of humor, I recommend you not to see it with a date you just met since the sex scenes could settle a little discomfort situation! Take it as a piece of advice or leave it!
Click here to see the trailer
