Red Sparrow - Oh dear.
As I walked to the theatre this evening I realised that watching Red Sparrow on the big screen was to be the only way I would watch this movie. I was not a fan of the previews, the trailers as one say, and neither had I heard good things about it. I was simply a tad curious. I like these actors, and I think Francis Lawrence has potential even though his movies always feels a bit clumsy.
Oh dear.
I hated this movie. Hated it. It was nasty, unpleasant, disturbing, disgusting. It has so much violence, gore, nudity and sexual references without any finess or thought. It tries so hard to be gruesome and serious, but has no idea how.
In theory this is an interesting story, although not original, with twists and turns. Double agent, double crossing, Who can you trust? What is real and what is acted? But it is handled so poorly that you can see through all of it and most twists you can see coming a mile away. Except for the rare occasions where the movie takes such leaps that it takes a few minutes for you to catch up because you suddenly have no clue what is happening. Mostly due to the stupidity of the characters.
Red Sparrow puts forth an image of men that suggests they can all be seduced by a blow job. Get on you knees, ladies, and men will tell you anything. Just rape them without consent and men will be pudding in your hands. Even when it tries to make the point that the good guys are not like that Jennifer Lawrence simply jumps on top of Joel Edgerton out of nowhere, fucks him for ten seconds without even taking of her panties, while he sits there with his mouth wide open and no clue as to what the actual fuck is happening.
While the first half of this movie has ridiculous amounts of sexual imagery, the second half dwells in gore. But many times it is without any logic. There is even one scene where Jennifer Lawrence’s character has a clear option of avoiding injury, but simply chooses the stupid route as a result it looks like someone from Cabin Fever came in and threw up on set.
But perhaps the worst crime this film commits is that it forces American actors/actresses to do Russian accents. And it is so bad. Some are so bad at it that it took me several scenes before I realised their character’s where not actually british.
Jennifer Lawrence almost gets away with her accent, but when she has to really act her American accent shines through. It feels like the Russian accent holds these people back. Jeremy Irons, whom I love, is not given anything to work with and what little he gets I was always distracted by the accent. Either hire Russian actors or speak in an American accent.
I can think of one or two scenes at the beginning where Jennifer Lawrence gets to act without any dialogue, and those are the best parts of the movie, but for the most parts she is supposed to play it cold which, combined with the awful story telling, results in a movie that at it’s best is boring.
I went in to Red Sparrow thinking this was going to be a forgettable film with some good scenes. I walked out of it irritated and disgusted. One of the worst movies I have seen in a while. Avoid Red Sparrow like the plague!