Movie review of Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow - 4/10

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Spy or espionage movies don't really have a lot of action in them. They mostly depend on the drama, the acting, script and plot twists. I'm not gonna count the Bond franchise because that's pretty much action with good looking people and what not. I'm talking about movies like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tailor of Panama or A Most Wanted Man where the focus is mainly on acting and delivering the script. Sadly, Red Sparrow tries too hard and becomes a little dull and draggy. And you can see the plot twist and reveal pretty much a mile away.

I didn't really like the casting as well. Jennifer Lawrence can be a good actress in certain movies but Red Sparrow is clearly not suited for her. First of all she is not really consistent with the accent. Whenever she shouts or gets angry, the Russian accent disappears. Second, her face is too bubbly for scenes which show distress or pain. That particular scene where she strips naked to sort of emasculate the guy who wants to fuck her, I was not convinced one bit. If you give that kind of scene to actresses like Marion Cotillard or Noomi Rapace, Fucking hell.. I will probably chop my cock off in shame. The worst casting was Mary Louise Parker. What the fuck was she doing? She acted like as though it was an episode of Weeds. Matthias Schoenaerts was not too bad. I remembered him from the movie, Rust and Bone. Even Joel Edgerton was decent, I still think someone else could have done his role better. Veterans like Ciaran Hinds and Jeremy Irons were given small roles and under utilized. Both pretty much did fuckall actually.

Direction and camera works was alright. Plot wise, it was a little draggy and too much focus on the training. Sitting down like a classroom, touching nipples and showing tits, dicks and ass is not really a training sequence for me.

Overall, Red Sparrow is a forgettable movie and I will not watch it again. Just wait for cable to watch for those who haven't.