Red sparrow movie3/11/2023 He thinks she can make herself useful to the state in order to protect her home and her mother. He’s a high-ranking member of the Russian secret intelligence agency, and he has recognized cunning and scrappiness in her since she was a child. Right on cue, her uncle Vanya (yes, Matthias Schoenaerts really plays a character named Uncle Vanya) steps in with a proposal. (It’s one of many gory moments that’ll make you flinch and cringe in your seat.)ĭominika’s career-ending leg break also means the end of her ballet-sponsored housing and medical care that her ill mother needs. But he is crucial to the on-stage accident that ends her career with a fall and a crack. The great Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin plays her partner sadly, he barely gets to show off his formidable abilities. It begins with promise and verve, though, as we see Dominika at the height of her powers in her former life, performing as a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet. That overall bland tone, coupled with the film’s unnecessarily long running time, makes this would-be thriller less than thrilling. She’s certainly game for it all (despite her wavering accent.) But aside from some shocking bursts of violence, he directs “Red Sparrow” with a surprisingly dull sameness. The fact that Dominika is told early on that her “body belongs to the state”-which was the case long before she started training to be a spy-makes her the object of constant leering, and that male gaze gives “Red Sparrow” a skeevy vibe from which it never deviates.ĭirector Lawrence also worked with Jennifer Lawrence (no relation) in the last three “Hunger Games” movies, so he’s familiar with putting his exceedingly capable star through the wringer. That film truly was about female empowerment-about a woman using every inch of her body to achieve her goals while also having agency over her fate. But it’s impossible to watch it without comparing it to last summer’s stylish and kinetic “ Atomic Blonde,” another physically demanding espionage thriller starring Charlize Theron. “Red Sparrow,” which Francis Lawrence directed from Justin Haythe’s script, is based on the novel by Jason Matthews. And as a solitary tool set, it wouldn’t seem to prepare her for the many dangers headed her way. What she endures is more than just degrading-it’s destructive. (Oh! She also learns how to pick locks.) Dominika is right when she complains that she’s been sent to “whore school” alongside other attractive and tough-minded young people who are being molded to serve Russia’s secret intelligence. But this is about the extent of the training she receives. And despite a tendency toward point-of-view whiplash shifts, the author inhabits voices and perspectives with an impressionist's aplomb, whether the rich patter of a CIA agent recounting an Istanbul adventure or those dry reports in the 'abbreviated style of the semiliterate Soviet'.Surely there’s more to spycraft than knowing the perfect spot to caress on a target’s thigh, or how delicately to whisper into his ear. The Washington Post says of Matthews's skill as a writer, "Sly descriptions abound, from the 'poached-egg eye' of a Russian assassin to the 'grimy catechisms' of those Sparrow School lessons. In 2014, the book won two literary awards, ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. The reviewers noted the distracting nature of the recipes at the end of each chapter, saying they could be easily skipped, and cautioned readers about the most explicit sex scenes they had ever encountered in the espionage genre. Burridge and Bradford also praised the characters as having been richly drawn, and for the avoidance of clichés, though they felt that the Russian supporting characters were not as nuanced as their American counterparts. James Burridge and Michael Bradford, reviewing the book for the CIA's website, praised the book for its authentic depiction of surveillance and countersurveillance techniques, calling it "accurate richly detailed", and positively comparing the book's plausibility to the work of John le Carré. Each chapter in the book, as well as its two sequels, includes a reference to a specific prepared food, and ends with a recipe for it. Other key figures are Marble, a Russian double agent who provides intelligence to the CIA, and Nate Nash, a CIA internal-ops officer who recruits and handles intelligence assets for the agency. ( February 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭominika Egorova, or "Red Sparrow", is a former Russian ballerina who is forced by her uncle to undergo espionage training for the Russian government at the Sparrow School, where people are trained to seduce their targets. You can provide one by editing this article. This article needs an improved plot summary.
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