Red Sparrow: Honeypottin'

From what I can recall from the Marvel movies, the character of Black Widow is an ex-Russian spy who has been kidnapped(?) from her family and trained from childhood to be a super soldier. Only after some regretful kills and mishaps, she learns the error of her ways and decides(?) to switch sides and fight for good-- or at least fight for someone who isn't Russia. That's when she's recruited(?) by the Avengers for her badass fighting skills and knowledge and general awesomeness. She's a strong character that, if Hollywood knew what they were doing, would've had two or three solo movies about her already. So, if the plot and trailers of Red Sparrow have led you to believe that you will be getting was is essentially a mock-Black Widow film complete with a super-soldier Russian chick going ham on bad guys-- you are going to be sorely disappointed in the film. Red Sparrow is NOT an action film, it's not a shoot-em-up, hand-to-hand combat, Atomic Blonde-esque movie. It's a character-focused espionage thriller that's more about the twists and turns of the central character leading to the (probably obvious) outcome that doesn't involve much action at all. There is a lot wrong with Red Sparrow as it does have several faults, but there is, indeed, much to enjoy here as well.

Jennifer Lawrence is Dominika, a premiere ballerina in Russia who seriously injures her leg (cringe-worthy moment) and is forced out of a life she loved. Her mother is ill and the only income they have is from the ballet. Desperate for money to help her mom, Dominika turns to her creepy, pervert-eyes uncle who works for the Russian government. He sends her to a special school in the middle of snowy-nowhere to become a "Sparrow"-- special agents trained to use their looks to lure suspects in, gain their trust, and kill the piss out of them. Dominika is reluctant, but with no other options she joins the Sparrows. For some reason that is never truly explained, she excels at it-- especially the mind manipulation part of it. From there, she's recruited back by the Russian government to pull the ole' honeypot on an American CIA agent (Joel Edgerton), to try and get the name of a mole he is protecting. There's more to it than that and it's a convoluted CIA plot that can get a little tedious trying to keep up with, but generally everything is wrapped up in the end to make a somewhat clearer picture.

Now, the movie is based off of a book series (like most movies these days), so I can only assume the film stays true(ish) to the book, but what I saw was a lot of missed opportunity for some fun. Yes, it's cool to have a thrilling whodunnit filled with allegiance flip flops to keep the audience guessing (you won't be), but there were some real moments where I could tell the audience I was sittting with (and myself) was craving some real ass kicking. I'm not even talking about something as skilled and awesome as the one-shot, stairwell, hand-to-hand, Charlize Theron fight, but if we've been getting training montages and talking about how failure can lead to death, we need to see things go wrong and see Dominika get pissed off with her fists. But it doesn't really happen. She's more cold and calculated (with a couple of random outbursts of very brief retaliatory violence), than an action hero in the making. I'm not just saying this because it's what I wanted out of the movie, I'm saying it because it looked like it was being set up to do so. When Dominika finds out that her injury was pre-planned by her ballet partner and his lover, she goes off and nearly beats them to death with her cane. This is in the very beginning of the movie, yet we don't really get to see Dominika fight like that in the rest of the movie.

But it is a decent thriller. I am one of these moviegoers who isn't trying to solve the mystery early on. I like to enjoy the ride, so I'm one of these vulnerable types who normally doesn't see a twist coming when most people do because I'm not constantly guessing. So, the ending of Red Sparrow was kind of a strange one for me. There are several twists leading up to the climax and I saw about half of them coming (without even thinking about it) and the other ones weren't exactly eye-poppingly shocking. So, if you're one who constantly tries to predict the outcomes of entertainment, it's probably going to be a letdown for you in that aspect as well. However, that wasn't really my biggest problem with the movie. I liked the story, I liked the characters, I liked the acting... but the writing felt... off. I appreciate what writer Justin Haythe was trying to do with the film, giving it a very feminist arc, but it's a feminist story written by a dude. A dude who THINKS he knows what feminists want out of their main characters and of the stories. According to Haythe, in order to make a strong female protagonist, one must make every single man in the movie complete and utter sewage. Literally every male character in the entire film (save for Edgerton) is a slime. They come on to J-Law with basically drool already sputtering down their chins. Two separate characters in two separate scenes attempt to rape her. The product of a good feminist movie and title character is not she's great because all men are bad and this is where Red Sparrow really misses the mark, and it comes off as more insulting to women than empowering them.

J-Law apparently still has some draw. I honestly didn't think this movie was going to be a huge hit, mainly because films like it recently haven't made a ton of money. They've done well, but not top of the charts well. However, the theater I normally frequent when seeing my Thursday night premieres was packed. The reason we pick this theater for Thursdays is because there's never anyone there. We saw the 8:00 Atomic Blonde at the same theater and there were maybe six other people. Red Sparrow was completely sold out. I was trying to gauge the audience on the way out and no one was really putting the movie down. And it makes sense. Whatever faults the movie has can be overlooked by the good in it-- especially J-Law. If I was a betting man, I would've bet a lot that her accent was going to be dreadful. And it wasn't. Because she's a great actor. Joel Edgerton is always a joy to watch and he and J-Law had some very good chemistry (even if their entire storyline is full of plotholes). So, there is stuff to like. But, it's not superior to Atomic Blonde and it's definitely not a "thinkin-man's movie". It's an entertaining little film that can be enjoyed if you just switch your brain off for a little bit and watch the pretty colors.

C