By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciaran Hinds, Joely Richardson and Jeremy Irons.
Rating: Poor.
Francis Lawrence, director of the last three movies of “The Hunger Games” series works again with Academy Award Winner Jennifer Lawrence in “Red Sparrow” a movie with so much potential that unfortunately was wasted.
Based on the novel by former CIA Agent Jason Matthews, the movie centers in Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) a Russian ballerina who´s career is over due to an injury.
Eventually she will be recruited by her Uncle Ivan Egorov (Matthias Schonaerts) to seduce a Russian Politician, which will lead to a murder of the politician. Dominika will have the choice to either enter the Sparrow Program or be murdered.
Now Dominika will become a Sparrow and is being asked to target on CIA Agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton).
Both agents will realize that their careers and lives will be stake, as well as the security for both their respective countries, which could eventually lead into a political issue.
One thing I can mention of “Red Sparrow” is that it the film it started very well but it went downhill once half of the second act was shown.
This has to do with the screenplay written by Justin Haythe, which credits include “Revolutionary Rode” and “ A Cure for Wellness”.
He wrote a very long movie and he was swapping between subplots the whole time. In every movie regardless of the genre you have to be clear with the story you are telling and for a thriller like this one you cannot affort the privilege of having a confusing plot.
The movie reached to the fact that I did not care for any of the characters and the goal of the main character by Jennifer Lawrence was not clear.
Lawrence is a very talented actress and he has proven it through her career. She did a really good job in this movie but again the cast is not going to save a film.
Joel Edgerton was really good as well and like Lawrence he tried what he could but it was not enough.
Another big problem that I saw was the character played by Mary-Louise Parker. Her inclusion in this film didn´t make any sense and her character was not even relevant in this film. When she had her first appeareance in the film, that´s when “Red Sparrow” begin to go downhill.
I also believe that Francis Lawrence´s direction was kind of sloppy. He only cared of trying to make the film visually good and he didn´t instruct his cast to deliver better performances. I´m surprised with this since he did a great job in “The Hunger Games” film, specially with “Catching Fire” which I consider the best of the franchise.
Another factor was the twist of the third act. An importantly plot point was revealed in the film and then it was switched to another. I don´t know what was the intention of Justin Haythe but it look to amateur in the screenplay.
I like this type of movies that involve political thrillers but in this case I saw a film with to many mistakes.
I admit that this movie had a lot of potential since a former agent wrote it but unfortunately it wasn´t written and directed properly.
“Red Sparrow” is a very big disappointment and I cannot recommend due to the story and that is too long without a reason.