Film Review: Red Sparrow Soars In Displaying The U.S. VS Russia Saga
SYNOPSIS: Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
Brutal, cringing, and absolutely enthralling! Red Sparrow is a violent ride with several turns to keep your eyes on the road. Moreover, Jennifer Lawrence gives a performance that made me scream, “ Bond …. Dominika Bond!”
At two hours and 19 minutes, I was beyond joyous to have a movie that kept me mentally fascinated, and eager to know more about how government espionage works. With our recent newsreel, it seems like the topic to know. How to put humanity and understand the intellect behind the “US” vs “USSR” is not easy and not for those who failed history class. Thus, Red Sparrow turns this giant, historical versus into a difference of moral, idealogical perspective. For those trained to be Russian Sparrows, the mind and body are all you need because the “soul” is a sentimental myth, and a trap for those that believe in it.
America is one big, country of feelings, and a lot of them are sad. It felt dangerously poignant to watch a screen filled with Russians focusing on our national depression, and using it to pick and poke wounds we deny so as to solidify their country as the new, global superpower. Since, the Cold War, the bitterness is real between the U.S. and Russia, and Red Sparrow elaborates that while we were gloating over our international power and negating our need for domestic empowerment, Russia has been watching us ready to rip open the personal, historical fractures we never healed like, racism, classism, and sexism. It is in the latter, where Sparrows truly learn to turn our bleeding hearts into pure hemorrhages.
In a time of #MeToo, Red Sparrow shows how sexual deviancy becomes a weapon. From her sleazy Uncle Vanya Egorov (played perfectly by Matthias Schoenaerts) to the several men in political power like, the disgusting Maxim Volontov Head of Budapest’s Information Office (played by Douglas Hodge), sexual predators are inescapable for Dominika. In the beginning, the film establishes that she is a highly astute woman, who can accurately read any person’s intentions, especially the men who fawn over the now “broken” prima-ballerina. Whether it was her male, ballet partner planning her demise as “star’ of the company or the Sparrow Program’s Matron (played stoically by Charlotte Rampling), it is ingrained in Dominika that her body is her greatest asset for manipulation. For The Sparrows, there is no such thing as sexual violence if you let go of self-image and perceptions of power and decency.
The latter statement could earn a few eye-rolls, but it is educational to see how, in many ways, h individuals/ societies excuse violence by appealing to the materiality of humanity rather than its spirituality. When you forget you are a soul, then you can be extremely powerful, but Dominika is so much more than power; she is a heart. One thing that is, consistently, brought up throughout the film is that Dominkia is “different”, but, really, it is that she has feelings and refuses to let them go. If anything, her ability to outwit and out-strengthen her superiors comes from how she balances mind, body, and soul. While it may seem trite to diminish the C.I.A. vs SVR as a heart vs mind argument, Dominika rises as one of the only characters to see you need both. The other one being Joel Edgerton’s Nate Nash.
Edgerton makes Nash feel amiable and honorable. He has this “look” to him that makes you feel like after a spy-mission, you can go with him to a Philly’s game and get a beer. He seems too rugged and open-hearted for the CIA’s serious dignity. Yet, like Dominika, it is his “different” aura that allows him to survive and fall in love with her. While for most of the film you are stressfully falling for this coupling, as you do not know where Dominika’s allegiances lie, you pull for their “us vs the world” relationship. They are the two of the three most intellectual, sentimental players in a game debating whether feeling or logic makes humanity “special”. The third being Jeremy Irons’ Korchnoi whose film journey goes from terrifying to secretly tender-hearted. Still, this is a spy film and you want FIGHTING!
In terms of action sequences, Red Sparrow has a good balance. There are several conversations, written by Justin Haythe, that grab your political dissection, but they are brilliantly dispersed between shots of Jennifer Lawrence kicking major ass. Director Francis Lawrence, makes you want to see Dominika again, and turn her into the new, cinematic James Bond! Red Sparrow comes out in theaters March 2.
