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Jennifer Lawrence is tied to a chair, beaten and tortured. She is the victim of rape and attempted rape. She is forced to strip naked in private and in public. She is slashed, stabbed and has a gun put to her head.

Ostensibly, such graphic ordeals are intended to demonstrate the physical and psychological fortitude of her character, a Russian spy named Dominika Egorova. But ultimately, these shocking and violent sequences become repetitive and gratuitous, making “Red Sparrow” feel more like a cheap exercise in exploitation than a visceral tale of survival.

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. But this is about the extent of the training she receives. (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. What she endures is more than just degrading—it’s destructive. And as a solitary tool set, it wouldn’t seem to prepare her for the many dangers headed her way.

“Red Sparrow,” which Francis Lawrence directed from Justin Haythe ’s script, is based on the novel by Jason Matthews . 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 . 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. 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.

Director 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. 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. That overall bland tone, coupled with the film’s unnecessarily long running time, makes this would-be thriller less than thrilling.

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. The great Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin plays her partner; sadly, he barely gets to show off his formidable abilities. But he is crucial to the on-stage accident that ends her career with a fall and a crack. (It’s one of many gory moments that’ll make you flinch and cringe in your seat.)

Dominika’s career-ending leg break also means the end of her ballet-sponsored housing and medical care that her ill mother needs. Right on cue, her uncle Vanya (yes, Matthias Schoenaerts really plays a character named Uncle Vanya) steps in with a proposal. 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. He thinks she can make herself useful to the state in order to protect her home and her mother.

That’s right. He sends her to whore school.

Charlotte Rampling , the cruel and emotionless leader of the training center (it’s actually called Sparrow School), teaches Dominika and her classmates how to manipulate people by seeking out their weaknesses, using their charms and becoming whomever they must to get the assignment done. Rampling’s character, known only as Matron, gives a speech to the class about how the West is weak, tearing itself apart with racial divisions and social media obsessions, and how it’s Russia’s time to step in and assert itself as the ultimate world power. This is about as close as “Red Sparrow” comes to addressing the renewed Cold War between Russia and the United States. (I guess a whole movie in which Jennifer Lawrence sits in a Moscow office building pumping out anti- Hillary Clinton Twitter bots would’ve been hard to market.)

There’s not nearly enough of Rampling, however. (Similarly, Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds help bolster the strong cast in small roles as top Russian officials.) That’s because Dominika soon gets her first assignment: She must travel to Budapest and cozy up to a CIA officer named Nate Nash ( Joel Edgerton ), who’d been working in Moscow, and find out the identity of the mole who was his contact inside Russian intelligence.

Lawrence and Edgerton suffer from a woeful lack of chemistry together, a component that’s essential to determining whether the entire movie works. The way they dance around one other—flirting, feeling each other out—provides some intrigue and suspense at first. But they drop their facades far too quickly, and the ensuing romance has barely any spark. They never make us believe the sacrifices they’re willing to make for each other; we just have to go with it as the plot chugs along.

Thankfully, there’s Mary-Louise Parker , who provides a much-needed respite from this slog. She has a quick but significant supporting role as the chief of staff to a United States senator who’s too drunk to realize she’s not nearly as slick or savvy as she thinks she is. She finds herself in over her head while trying to sell secrets to the Russians and ends up getting squeezed in the midst of a power play between various double-crossing agents. It’s the film’s most suspenseful segment. And for one brief, glorious moment, she breathes life into a movie that never truly takes flight.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Red Sparrow (2018)

Rated R for strong violence, torture, sexual content, language and some graphic nudity.

139 minutes

Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika Egorova

Joel Edgerton as Nathaniel Nash

Jeremy Irons as Vladimir Korchnoi

Ciarán Hinds as Alexei Zyuganov

Matthias Schoenaerts as Vanya Egorov

Joely Richardson as Nina Egorova

Mary-Louise Parker as Stephanie Boucher

Charlotte Rampling as Matron

• Francis Lawrence

Writer (based upon the book by)

• Jason Matthews
• Justin Haythe

Cinematographer

• Alan Edward Bell
• James Newton Howard

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‘red sparrow’: what the critics are saying.

The reviews are mixed for Jennifer Lawrence’s new spy thriller.

By Michael Waters

Michael Waters

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The reviews are in for the Jennifer Lawrence -led spy thriller Red Sparrow , and the consensus is that the movie is more style than substance.

In the film, based on Jason Matthews’ novel of the same name, Oscar winner Lawrence teams up with a familiar director — Francis Lawrence, who worked with her on three of the four Hunger Games films. Red Sparrow centers on a Russian spy trained to use seduction to gain information. Following a dramatic injury, former ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) is pushed to enroll in the fictional Sparrow School, a brutal spy program that trains people to wield their bodies as weapons of the Russian government (“Your body belongs to the state”). In real life, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election bolsters the otherwise fictional storyline, reminding audiences that the Cold War — as the film makes clear — is not fully dead.

In early reviews, Red Sparrow has a 57 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Writing for  The Hollywood Reporter , critic John  DeFore  predicted that  Red Sparrow  will be generally disappointing to audiences. “Striking a sometimes uneasy balance between trust-no-one espionage and sensationalism,  Sparrow  seems likely to attract a fairly large audience but leave few moviegoers fully satisfied,” he wrote. Though Lawrence “performs unimpeachably,” she is clearly “better than the material.” He also expressed frustration with a climatic scene in which “the filmmakers require  Dominika  to do something very stupid and very implausible” so that an antagonist can live a little longer.

“Given current geopolitical realities, we’re probably due for a big wave of  Russophobic  genre cinema. Red Sparrow helps get the ball rolling, but here’s hoping we see better before Putin & Co’s devastating use of social media makes all this one-on-one  spycraft  seem laughably quaint,” DeFore wrote.

To Sean P. Means of The Salt Lake Tribune , director Francis Lawrence “does right by [Jennifer Lawrence] but has a mess to contend with everywhere else.” He describes the script as “a drab slice of le Carré-light , only occasionally punctuated with joyless sexual content and nasty torture sequences.”

IndieWire ’s  Eric Kohn, who generally enjoyed the film, praised Lawrence’s performance — she “manages the tricky proposition of adopting a Russian accent with a surprising degree of effectiveness” — and notes that the acting carried an otherwise unremarkable script: “Every scene is defined by whispery exchanges and stern looks that often threaten to veer into camp, or boredom, but the considerable talent on display is its constant saving grace.”

The movie doesn’t just conjure up memories of the 2016 election. To Kohn, the “queasy blend of eroticism and tactical discussion” is also “especially resonant when conversations about exploiting sex for power couldn’t be louder.”

Entertainment Weekly ’s Leah  Greenblatt  also liked the movie, but asked: “What does  Sparrow  bring to the  cineplex  that hasn’t been done before, and better?” As she noted, “There wasn’t much to place the movie in the year 2018. There was hardly any cool technology — one plot point literally uses floppy disks at one point — or fresh take, style-wise, on what is a pretty le  Carré-crusted  genre at this point.”

ScreenRant ’s Sandy Schaefer summed up her thoughts this way: “[The film] is more an exercise in style over substance. Anchored by Jennifer Lawrence’s performance,  Red Sparrow  is a slow-burn spy/seductress thriller that’s shiny on the surface, yet lacking in depth.”

Jesse  Hassenger  of The A.V. Club would agree: “[ Red Sparrow is] about halfway between Atomic Blonde and a Focus Features late-summer thriller, which more or less fits the Francis Lawrence aesthetic. He brings to this material what he brought to The Hunger Games : a sense of style that feels constrained by obligations to hit a certain number of plot points.” Though Red Sparrow is “a lavishly costumed, location-enhanced thriller,” it “carries itself along briskly enough (even with a 139-minute running time, the most indulgent thing about it), but it’s never especially brain-twisting or nerve-wracking.”

Time Out New York ‘s  Tomris Laffly wrote in a 3 out of 5-star review that “a stony-faced Jennifer Lawrence leads the way in the bleak, excessively long Red Sparrow , which sets off promisingly but tangles into a confusing clump.”

The Guardian ‘s Benjamin Lee tried to assess where the film fits in with the actress’ recent filmography: “While Passengers was a weird, unsalvageable mess and Mother! an intriguing failure, Red Sparrow is not exactly the home run Lawrence could do with right now. But it’s far from a disaster. There’s a curious perversity that rears its head early in the film during a startlingly grisly shower scene and throughout, there’s a shocking willingness to go to the very edge of what’s acceptable in a contemporary studio movie. There’s full-frontal nudity, violent rape, implied incest, graphic torture and a darkly sexual atmosphere that leads to a number of head-spinningly nasty moments.”

Audiences can see Red Sparrow  for themselves starting Friday, March 2. 

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Movies, tv & music • independent film criticism • soundtrack guides • forming the future • est. 2014, review: francis lawrence’s ‘red sparrow’.

Although it dons a spy thriller cape, Francis Lawrence’s Red Sparrow is a harkening and timely reminder of how sex can be used as a means of mediating power between men and women. The elegantly tense film recalls Harvey Weinstein’s unforgiveable tribulations, through men exploiting women, but it shows that in such a perverse world, sex is maybe the key to survival for women.

The film’s stoic-faced heroine is ballet dancer Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), who suffers an onstage injury, captured in the opening minutes. Needing financial support to take care of her ailing mother, Egorova seeks help from her creepy uncle Ivan (Matthias Schoenaerts, looking Putinesque). What seems like a sincere call for help becomes coercion by part of Ivan, who sends Dominika to Sparrow School, where students are transformed into robot-like, Russian spies (sparrows) by being conditioned to not resist the sexual urges of their targets. The film is at its most provocative when its seductive sparrows are forced to have sex with handpicked strangers .

Rape, torture and nudity (full frontal) make this R-rated release an immediate needle in the haystack of studio films, and its theme of female subjugation due to patriarchal systems becomes more jarringly clear.

The aloof Egorova becomes colder as the film progresses and her hardened character draws a deep contrast to the school’s headmistress, the menacingly subtle Matron (played with great aplomb by Charlotte Rampling), who utters to Egorova early in the film, “Your body belongs to the state.” This line resonates throughout Red Sparrow , highlighting how female bodies have become weaponized by the modern Russian government.

The film’s methods of exploring this theme feel problematic. Consider a seduction scene where Lawrence bares naked in front of the camera; as Dominika is used as a weapon to seduce wanted men from Russia, Lawrence is used to seduce the audience in ways that feel exploitative and commercialized. To rely on exposing naked bodies as much as Red Sparrow does reveals another flaw: it thinks too highly of itself.

Judging from the unique mix of different elements (camp, thriller, romance) and its willingness to show what goes on behind closed doors for women who interact with men of great power (a critique of the casting couch), Red Sparrow wants to be a deep film about the mix of gender politics with sexuality, but reverts to traditional ways of developing its female lead.

The film needlessly gives Egorova a romantic counterpart, Nathanial Nash (a subdued Joel Edgerton who lacks chemistry with Lawrence), a CIA operative, and this only disrupts the development of Egorova. Why build her up as a strong female character if you’re going to ultimately make her rely on a love interest? Despite this, Nash adds to the main question of where Egorova’s allegiance lies — is it with the American she loves or with the Russians who want her to extract information about a mole from Nash?

Another frustrating issue is Red Sparrow’s simplistic depiction of Russians, who are portrayed as diabolical and evil . This draws a stark contrast to the film’s complex discourse about the power plays built around sex.

In post- Hunger Games mode , Jennifer Lawrence continues her streak of pushing the envelope. Even if her accent feels awkward at times, she is mostly convincing as a Slavic agent caught in a battle of espionage wills. It is also telling that no Russian actors were hired for the prominent roles in Red Sparrow (British, Scottish and Americans get the meatier roles), which makes me wonder — for a film pushing its R rating to the farthest limit, why can’t it be more authentic in recreating the same country its criticizing?

Muhammad Muzammal is a freelance film critic/artist based in Manhattan/Long Island. His interests include Italian Neo-realism, Indian Parallel Cinema and film theory, specifically discourse on affect images and spatial-architectural theory. His digital artwork and photography can be found on Instagram: ali0824 .

Categories: 2018 Film Reviews , Featured , Film Reviews

Tagged as: Francis Lawrence , Harvey Weinstein , Jennifer Lawrence , Joel Edgerton , Mary-Louise Parker , Muhammad Muzammal , Mystery , Red Sparrow , Review , Thriller

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Review: ‘Red Sparrow’ is a Chilly, Slick, and Brutal Spy Thriller

With Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen hanging up her bow and arrow and Francis Lawrence now free of the shackles of adhering to the demands of hit source material, Red Sparrow is a clear pivot into more mature, merciless terrority for the duo. Reteaming with his star of The Hunger Games , the entire film feels like an exercise in proving they can handle material that’s not only darker, but rife with prevalent commentary both on the politics of today and the psychological and physical toll of sexual assault. While there’s a blunt effect to tackling such issues in a frank manner, the direction doesn’t the have the formal daring of something like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the script is a few shades shy of the wit contained in the ‘70s spy thrillers it pays homage to.

Though advertised in the Atomic Blonde vein, this is a far more subdued and less osentensius thriller. In fact, aside from a cringe-inducing knife fight that rivals the brutality of Eastern Promises ’ iconic scene, there are no real setpieces to speak of. Rather, feeling more akin to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , much of the suspense is tied to the questionable sympathies of our lead as she jumps back and forth between Russian intelligence and the CIA. The script by Justin Haythe–the writer behind another audacious, over-extended 20th Century Fox spring release, A Cure for Wellness –is full of twists and turns, and while some of them will come as a surprise, one never feels genuinely invested of the outcome due to the emotionally reserved approach, which is more convoluted and distended than necessary.

Dedicating her life to ballet, we first meet Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) as she lives a humble life taking care of her ailing mother in between practice and performances. The lead-up to an life-changing accident in a major production is slickly cross-cut with CIA agent Nathaniel Nash (Joel Edgerton), also in Russia, as he evades capture when one of his sources is nearly apprehended by the police. We continue to oscillate between the two storylines and their eventual convergence as Dominika, by the coercion of her shady, powerful uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts), joins the “Sparrow School” and trains to become a Russian spy where her body and mind get degraded in favor of assisting her nation. Meanwhile, after some questioning back in America, Nash returns to Russia where he attempts to sway the newly graduated Dominika to his side.

While on the surface the kind of glossy globe-trotter where Hollywood stars are cast as Russians and accents are used in favor of subtitles, Red Sparrow soon reveals its darkness hiding underneath. Jennifer Lawrence, who was recently put through the wringer in mother! , is subjected to more realistic forms of torture here. As Dominika is forced to strip naked and sees her classmates being ordered to give blowjobs to perverts in order to remove any emotion from using their bodies as weapons, her arc goes from a subservient pawn in Russia’s male-dominated political game to wielding her own power. Lawrence displays an initial timidness that gives way to a commanding, icy swagger as she gives herself over to the Sparrow training and high-stakes execution. However, Haythe’s script is more interested in the espionage thrills than inserting any sort of intelligent, feminist-minded motivation, particularly when it comes to a needless romance.

After numerous scenes of brutal mental and physical torture, one wishes the takeaway was more than just a guttural reaction to the horror on display. A few moments of levity are provided by the always-excellent Bill Camp in an all-too-brief role. The cinematography from Jo Willems, also reteaming after The Hunger Games , is well-composed with a few flourishes but mostly playing by the noir handbook, as is James Newton Howard’s score, which eventually builds to a rousing orchestral climax.

Giving the world a heightened, almost cartoonish look at Russian intelligence from the inside, Red Sparrow cheekily plays to the moment. “A country that only cares about shopping and social media,” says Charlotte Rampling as a Sparrow School headmaster, speaking about their target: America. It’s just one of many moments in the script that aims to hit the zeitgeist without penetrating much further than surface observations. While Red Sparrow ultimately doesn’t earn its all-consuming, grueling dourness, there are a few thrills to be had, and following the best performance of her career last fall, it’s certainly another fearless step forward for Jennifer Lawrence.

Red Sparrow opens on Friday, March 2.

Red Sparrow Review

02 Mar 2018

Red Sparrow

A Russian secret agent. A dehumanising training regime. A background in ballet. It’s no wonder that when Red Sparrow was announced, Marvel fans thought they were getting their much-wished-for Black Widow movie in everything but name. But Francis Lawrence ’s steely thriller, based on the first of Jason Matthews’ trilogy of novels, shares more DNA with John Le Carré’s densely-plotted espionage page-turners than the MCU.

For his first film since directing the final three Hunger Games instalments, Lawrence has once again recruited Jennifer Lawrence (no relation) to play a young woman forced into a life of violence by society. This time she’s Dominika, a fast-rising ballerina whose career is cut brutally short in a beautifully-shot opening sequence that juxtaposes her final stage performance against the careful dance between CIA Agent Nate Nash ( Edgerton ) and his secret informant. It’s a confident opener, deftly setting up both strands of the dual narrative before they inevitably become tangled. Faced with few options to keep a roof over her mother’s head, Dominika is pushed by her domineering uncle Ivan ( Matthias Schoenaerts in decidedly Putin-esque prosthetics) into becoming an operative for the Russian government. She’s dispatched to Sparrow School to join an elite group of agents taught who use their sexuality to lure in unsuspecting targets, before receiving her first mission: uncover Nash’s mole.

Red Sparrow becomes easier to enjoy the less you try to untangle its more disturbing plot points.

Viewers expecting a playful and action-packed thriller, be warned: Red Sparrow is surprisingly hard-edged, with uncompromising and unflinching depictions of torture and sexual violence. Its sexual politics are complex and knotty, with several scenes destined to cause controversy. Dominika’s body is commoditised by the state and she’s expected to surrender and weaponise it for the cause, leading to some moments of shockingly stark nudity and brutality. The film constantly teases Dominika’s shifting loyalties: has her training destroyed her free will and sexual agency, or given her the tools to remain in control of her actions and her body in a vicious patriarchal world? Some will be satisfied by the conclusion to Red Sparrow ’s challenging subject matter, but those tired of rape and torture tropes may not be willing to stick around for it.

Along the way, Red Sparrow packs in a tightly-woven plot as Dominika makes careful contact with Nash on her mission. Lawrence, the director, conjures compelling evidence for Dominika’s dual allegiances — her growing relationship with the American agent feels convincing, but the punishingly brutal regime of Charlotte Rampling ’s stern matron throws doubt into the mix as Lawrence, the actor, is put through the wringer. Even behind a distracting wig and hammy Russian-inflected accent, she’s fierce and committed in the lead role, while the dependably excellent Edgerton just about elevates the vanilla role of Nash into something more intriguing.

For all that it’s not an action film, Red Sparrow still manages to raise the pulse when it needs to. A taut and tense floppy disk exchange in a hotel room is a particular highlight, buoyed by a hugely enjoyable performance by Mary-Louise Parker in the minor role of a rogue US Senator. Later there’s a disturbing and stomach-churning new purpose for a skin-grafting machine, while the final moments deliver a smart conclusion that never feels the need to tip over into unnecessary action beats.

In a Hollywood landscape where glossy, mature thrillers are an increasing rarity, Red Sparrow doesn’t condescend to the audience, to the point that it becomes easier to enjoy the less you try to untangle its more disturbing plot points. On this evidence the Lawrences remain a strong pairing away from the YA genre — let’s just hope that they don’t split the final novel if they adapt the rest of Matthews’ trilogy.

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Red Sparrow (2018)

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Review: ‘Red Sparrow’ Has Spies, Lies and Dirty Dancing

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By Manohla Dargis

• March 1, 2018

In the preposterously entertaining “Red Sparrow,” Jennifer Lawrence plays a Russian ballerina turned murderous spy. And why not?

Russian spies are apparently everywhere, and we seem to be in the middle of the Cold War 2.0. Anyone who has ever watched a ballet also knows how terrifyingly capable dancers are, with their steely strength, athleticism and discipline. Ms. Lawrence, best known as the teenage survivalist turned savior Katniss Everdeen in the “Hunger Games” series, has played rough before, so when her character in “Red Sparrow” brutally twists in a knife, it’s almost like old home week.

The story, too, is familiar but has notes and beats that have been refurbished and scrambled enough to hold and at times surprise you. Ms. Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova, a prima ballerina for the Bolshoi . Her face framed by bangs and a curtain of waist-skimming hair, Dominika rules the stage until a midperformance catastrophe cuts her down. With an ailing mother (Joely Richardson) and no money or options, she turns to her uncle, amusingly named Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts, sliming up his sex appeal), a power monger in the foreign intelligence service who makes her an unsavory offer. She’s to serve as a honey pot for a man of interest, a job that of course goes wrong.

Anatomy of a Scene | ‘Red Sparrow’

Francis lawrence narrates a sequence from the film featuring jennifer lawrence and joel edgerton..

I’m Francis Lawrence, and I’m the director of “Red Sparrow.” So what you’re about to see is a scene between Jennifer Lawrence, playing Dominika Egorova, and Joel Edgerton’s character, Nate Nash. Jennifer’s character has been given a mission of trying to find a mole in the Russian government. And his last known contact is Nate Nash, an American CIA agent. “Dominika Egorova.” “You know my name?” We shot the film primarily in Budapest. And in creating this scene, the production designer, Maria Djurkovic, and I wanted a very realistic version of what a US embassy might be. I wanted in a way to do the sort of anti-party scene that you might find in a “Mission Impossible” movie or in a Bond movie. And those always tend to take place in operas and things like that. And it’s all very glamorous and people are in tuxedos and everybody looks really beautiful. And in my experience of seeing these kind of embassy events, they’re often quite boring. And so we found this great ‘60s university in Budapest, a medical university, that we used to lobby for the embassy and populated it with a bunch of background that we cast in Budapest but dressed them very — quite bland. Something to look out for in this scene is it’s one of the very few times, if not the only time, that Jen’s character smiles in the movie. And part of what we thought would be really interesting in this, because this is one of the first times we start to cement the romance between the two of them, is that he should charm her a bit. “Hey, I’d like to see you again.” “Why? Are we going to become friends?” “Is that what you want?” “I don’t have any.” And so for all the maneuvering the two of them are doing, she does get charmed by Joel and smiles in this.

The director Francis Lawrence (no relation to Ms. Lawrence) paints the movie red quickly and lavishly, daubing and washing that color onto sets, costumes and pouty lips. By the time he stages the first murder, the blood has begun to flow liberally, as if to underscore the movie’s title. The scene makes for a gruesome tableau, especially because of its intimacy (death often comes in close-up here), and because of the blood that splatters across Dominika, an augury of the lurid, messy violence to come. And come it does — in dribbles, gushes and an occasional shot to the head. “Red Sparrow” is based on the novel (the first in a trilogy) of the same title by Jason Matthews , a former C.I.A. officer who presumably knows something about the death-dealing world of spy versus spy.

The C.I.A. digs the novel and posted a review on its website , which suggests it would also approve of the movie’s politics (United States good, Russia bad); humorously, the agency did warn that the sex was explicit and “the Russian characters are not as nuanced as their U.S. counterparts.” (The violence onscreen is, as with most mainstream movies, blunter and more attentively staged and filmed than the sex, which is ho-hum decorous.) The Russians are about as movie-real as the American characters, which mostly just means that they’re types fleshed out with recognizably human detailing and all the polished professionalism — and the slight, detached irony — that comes when you hire smooth veterans like Charlotte Rampling, Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds.

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'A Quiet Place: Day One' Ending Explained: Do Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn Survive?

The 10 best quotes in bad movies, ranked, every movie from the 2000s with 0% on rotten tomatoes, ranked.

Red Sparrow is not a pleasant movie by any stretch of the imagination. Rather than offering the escapism the spy genre usually provides of glamorous agents and globetrotting escapades, Francis Lawrence ’s film is a brutal plunge into a world of sexual assault and degradation. Although it plays by the beats of the spy drama to the point where it feels like the story is devolving into an extended cat-and-mouse game, Red Sparrow is at its most electrifying when it feels like a raw nerve about how power is used and choice is removed. Jennifer Lawrence gives a fearless performance that makes us want to root for her even if we know that the only way to succeed in the world presented is through dominance, control, and destruction.

Dominika Egorova ( Jennifer Lawrence ) is a prima ballerina in the Bolshoi until an accident on stage breaks her leg and ends her dancing career. Needing to support herself and her ailing mother Nina ( Joely Richardson ), Dominika turns to her uncle Vanya ( Matthias Schoenaerts ) who recruits her for a mission involving a Russian politician. When the mission goes sideways, Dominika is presented with a “choice”: die or become a “sparrow”, a subset of the intelligence service meant to use charm and manipulation to extract information. When she completes Sparrow School, Dominika is tasked with seducing CIA agent Nate Nash ( Joel Edgerton ), who knows the identity of a highly placed mole inside the Russian government. But as the mission continues, it’s unclear if Dominika is playing Nate, Vanya, or both.

Lawrence’s film exists firmly inside the spy genre, relishing the little touches of spycraft and deception, but in the deadly serious manner of movies like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy rather than the rambunctious, action-packed glory of Atomic Blonde . He renders the world beautiful and sterile, a fragile creation that’s immaculately framed, but with a symmetry that conveys confinement despite the heavy use of wide-angle lenses. It its pitch-black manner, Red Sparrow tells us that Dominika isn’t just trapped by her personal circumstances; the world itself is a cage for her.

And inside that cage sexual assault runs rampant. For all of the deception, moles, locales, and aliases, Red Sparrow is obsessed with the circumstances that create sex crimes. Although Dominika refers to Sparrow School as a “Whore School”, a more appropriate term would probably be “Rape School.” Yes, the students are taught how to seduce their targets, but the school itself, led by the unforgiving Matron ( Charlotte Rampling ), is the rapist on behalf of the state. It forces students to have sex and perform sex acts against their will, and then frames it as “sacrifice.” It also exists in circumstances where the choice for Dominika is death or doing what she’s told, which is no choice at all.

The removal of choice is the most insidious aspect of Red Sparrow , and it’s what gives the movie its haunting power. By framing the story around the removal of these choices, it provides a damning view of power and those that use it. We’re not meant to root for Dominika in the same way we’d root for James Bond or Lorraine Broughton. When she attacks the dancers who injured her, we see that she’s only as good as the world allows her to be, and that world demands unflinching brutality and no forgiveness. There’s nothing hopeful or optimistic in Red Sparrow .

Surprisingly, Red Sparrow is able to go beyond the obvious notion of “sexual assault is ugly and terrible” to create a compelling spy narrative where we want to see Dominika take control, but also know that she can only control within the confines this world provides her. There will be no shootouts. There will be no car chases. There’s only manipulation, subterfuge, and deception. Unfortunately, this ends up leading Red Sparrow down a more tedious path where it can’t seem to break out of its extended cat-and-mouse game. The film settles into a rhythm where we don’t know who Dominika plans to ruin (and it’s to Francis Lawrence’s credit that his film is so bleak that it could easily be Nash, who’s a good guy), but eventually that becomes uninteresting. The movie needs to move forward, but it gets caught up in poorly-paced plotting to set up a big reveal at the end.

Thankfully, there’s Lawrence giving another commanding performance. Like her turns in The Hunger Games , Winter’s Bone , American Hustle , and Joy among others, Lawrence does steely determination mixed with human vulnerability like no one else. She’s not a superhero here, nor does she ask for our sympathies. There’s a cold pragmatism at play, someone who understands how the game is played and that there’s little room for idealism or love. She’s not a super-spy or some cold, uncaring monster. Vanya has the proper measure of Dominika when he says she sees through people and is always one step ahead of them, and Lawrence, despite still being under 30, conveys that world-weary cynicism and knowledge better than other actors twice her age.

Even though Red Sparrow starts to burn out as it heads into its second-half (an issue stemming more from an overstuffed plot than the acting or direction), it still makes for a fairly compelling experience if only because it’s rare for a major studio to make a movie this disturbing. It’s something that Paul Verhoeven would get away with on a small budget, but Red Sparrow is two hours and twenty minutes of shocking brutality and violence. In an odd way, it’s reminiscent of the studio’s film from last year, A Cure for Wellness , a movie from a visionary director that’s both gorgeous to look at and deeply disturbing. Red Sparrow is not a fun a movie, nor is it a movie that works all the time, but it’s a movie worth seeing.

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Parental Guidance

Three spy movies you can watch with your family instead of red sparrow.

The main movies opening this week are rated R, including Red Sparrow , featuring Hunger Games  star Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian ballerina who becomes a spy. Basically, all you need to know about this movie is that Lawrence’s character complains that she was sent to “whore school” for her training. This is extremely graphic, violent material.

But there are other movies about spies that are far more appropriate for you to watch with your family. Here are a few suggestions:

THE RECOMMENDATIONS

Spy Kids (2001) 93%

Rating:  PG, for action sequences and brief language.

Agent Cody Banks (2003) 38%

Rating: PG, for action violence, mild language and some sensual content.

I’m not saying it’s a great piece of cinema. But this kid version of James Bond will likely entertain the kids in your own house. And it features two likable young stars in Frankie Muniz and Hilary Duff, who successfully made the tricky transition from child actor to grown-up performer. Muniz stars in the title role as a seemingly ordinary 15-year-old who lives a secret life as a spy, having trained at CIA summer camp. When he has to befriend a scientist’s daughter (Duff) as part of his first assignment, he realizes he has no idea how to talk to girls. But then when she gets kidnapped, he has to do more than just talk to her – he has to rescue her. The action set pieces, which include fights, chases and explosions, are big and cartoonish. The villains also are over the top. There’s a bit of language and suggestive humor. But overall, I’d say this is fine for viewers around 9 or 10 and older.

Dr. No (1962) 95%

Rating:  PG

It’s a classic, of course: The first James Bond movie, which introduced Sean Connery in the iconic role and featured some of the most enduring imagery of the long-running series. Agent 007 must travel to Jamaica to discover what happened to a missing colleague; what he stumbles upon is the evil Dr. No and a plot to interfere with American rocket launches. It’s pure escapism, filled with lavish settings, elaborate action sequences and beautiful women. But while Dr. No seems tame compared to movies of this genre being made today – especially the modern, Daniel Craig Bond films — it’s definitely not for very young kids. Bond famously has a license to kill, and he infamously has a way with the ladies. A lot is suggested without being shown on camera, but still – watching this movie may result in some conversations you’re not ready to have yet. But if you have kids in your house who love action movies and are interested in learning about the films that influence what they watch today, Dr. No is fine for tweens and older.

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Major spoilers for Red Sparrow .

Red Sparrow , the new film from Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence and star Jennifer Lawrence, is a convoluted spy thriller with as many twists and turns as one might expect from this type of movie - and one shocking ending. A claustrophobic tale of double agents, double-crosses, secret identities, and hidden agendas, Red Sparrow is an uncomfortable and harrowing ride through the world of clandestine spies in tense political climate of Russia-USA relations.

By the time the credits roll, specific details of the ending can be a little tough to discern, but it's not as complicated as it may seem at first blush. Still, viewers might be somewhat confused after leaving the theater, so here's a rundown of the major moments of Red Sparrow 's ending.

The Mole's Identity

There are two main characters in Red Sparrow : Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) and Nash (Joel Edgerton). Dominika is a Sparrow, an elite Russian saboteur/provocateur/agent. Nash is a CIA field agent charged with protecting his contact, a mole within the Russian government. The film begins with Nash nearly starting an international incident while scrambling to protect the mole's identity, and essentially getting kicked out of Russia as a result. The identity of this double agent is a closely guarded secret for most of the film, until his identity is revealed near the end.

Related: Just How Violent Is Red Sparrow?

The whole time, General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi, played by Jeremy Irons , was spying for the Americans. He reveals his true allegiance to Dominika and laments that his time is almost up. His loyalty to Russia was tested by the end of the Cold War, and he was captivated by the allure of individualism offered by the West. Russia had turned into something of a prison for a man like Korchnoi, and he was tired of being nothing more than an anonymous cog in a supposedly great machine, so he decided to work with the CIA to advance the Western agenda, rather than that of this neo-Soviet Russia.

He'll be discovered, but he has a plan: have Dominika, who is currently under suspicion for being a double agent herself, turn him in and become a national hero. From this place of impunity, she can continue his work, undermining Russia's plans while feeding information to the West. He's willing to sacrifice himself if his legacy lives on through Dominika. The only problem for Dominika is that she doesn't necessarily have an allegiance to either the USA or Russia. She only signed on to be a spy because the alternative was death. As far as the audience truly knows, the only person in her life she actually cares about is her mother.

Dominika Plays Everyone

Throughout the film, Dominika is wrestling with her forced allegiance to Russia and her apparent desire to defect to the United States. Through it all, however, she has a more singular goal in mind: revenge.

Dominika's uncle Ivan is a real jerk, to put it mildly. He recruits his own niece for a mission which ends in her rape and a violent killing, and then ships her off to a clandestine spy school where she's taught to be an unfeeling agent of the State, dehumanized through rape, murder, and the systematic removal of her identity - and that's before he displays incestuous feelings for his niece and even kisses her. Basically, everything that happens is his fault, and Dominika knows it from the start, or at least very early on.

Related: Red Sparrow Review: Jennifer Lawrence Does David Fincher Lite

During her missions, both for Russia and the United States, she's collecting and planting evidence against mean ol' Uncle Ivan, and it all comes to a head in the finale, a hostage trade. The Russians are returning the mole to the custody of the Americans, while the Americans are giving Dominika back to the Russians.

When the opaque bag is removed from the mole's head, the movie flashes back to crucial moments between Dominika and her uncle Ivan, including swiping a glass (with his fingerprints) from his office and making fake copies of the data acquired from Senator Boucher (Mary-Louise Parker). When the mask is removed, the face revealed isn't that of Korchnoi, but of Ivan, who has been successfully framed by Dominika. She used the glass to place him where he never was, and the floppy disk to suggest he was giving fake data to the Russians.

It's capped off in a bloody way. Beforehand, there was concern among the Americans that the Russians would never be willing to allow an exposed mole to live and share secrets with the West, and their suspicion is proven correct when a sniper ends Ivan's life with a well-placed headshot.

There Are Two Moles At The End Of Red Sparrow

As the film closes, the Russian government is undermined by two moles: Korchnoi maintains his role in the military while funneling information to the CIA, and now Dominika is embedded within Russia's intelligence community . Above suspicion for her role in exposing her own uncle as a traitor to the State, Dominika is well-positioned to aid the CIA while undermining Russia's own interests, though her true allegiance is unknown. Does she have any concern over the political intrigue and clandestine squabbles between Russia and America? Now that her personal mission is completed, how will she use her skills to influence the greater geopolitical landscape of East-West relations? The future is wide open for Dominika, and the new Cold War of the 21st century is where she will make her mark.

Related: Red Sparrow Director Responds To Black Widow Comparisons

The final shot of the film shows Dominika answering a phone call. Presumably, it's the CIA, possibly Nash himself, prompting underlying questions. Does Dominika truly have romantic feelings for Agent Nash? Or were her affections just a ruse to use him and his resources to carry out her revenge on evil Uncle Ivan? But what if it's not the CIA calling? As the movie fades out, music can be heard on the other end of the line. Russian ballet music. Is that her contact, or does it represent something more personal? Whatever the case may be, Dominika is not out of danger yet. Her secrets are her own, but she must now live in constant fear of being discovered by people who won't think twice before killing executing her as a spy.

What Does Red Sparrow Say About US/Russian Politics?

The original Red Sparrow novel , published in 2013, was timely in its portrayal of Russia as a country working tirelessly to undermine Western interests as though the Cold War had never ended. In 2018, with mounting evidence of Russian interference in the United States' 2016 presidential election, that page-turning spy story feels even more relevant.

A core element of Red Sparrow is the chess game of installing double agents in key positions of power to undermine the enemy. Korchnoi and Dominika are American agents embedded within Russia. Would a prospective sequel to the film flip things and look at Russian spies in the U.S.? That would be very current, by simple existence tackling the oft-disputed presidency of Donald Trump. That said, it's important to note that the President of Russia is never explicitly named in the film, even though the original book makes repeated mention to Vladimir Putin; despite its politics, Red Sparrow isn't trying to be political.

It remains to be seen how Red Sparrow performs at the box office, but if it makes decent business, it's incredibly likely that 20th Century Fox will be looking to adapt the sequel novel, Palace of Treason , for the big screen. The ending of this first movie does an admirable job of setting up a sequel while also feeling like a definitive conclusion if it winds up being a "one and done" movie.

Next: 10 Movies We’re Looking Forward To: March 2018

Key Release Dates

Red Sparrow

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• Red Sparrow (2018)

Red Sparrow — 4 Gavels 52% Rotten Tomatoes

Odd, isn’t it?  For those of us born during the Cold War, it is almost comforting to have the Russians back as the bad guys.  You just never were quite sure if you could trust those guys or not, at least in the movies. (I interrupt this review to bring you an important rant.  Have you noticed “preview creep” lately at the theater?  We used to have 12 minutes of previews, then 15, then 20.  Lately, the previews are hitting 22 minutes and beyond.  Enough is enough!  They are doing their best to force us to stay home and watch Netflix.  And now back to our regularly scheduled review.)  Red Sparrow is based upon the writings of a CIA agent about the Russian program.  This is book one.  Whether or not there will be Red Sparrow 2 depends on the box office.  I liked it; the critics are very mixed.

Dominika is an accomplished ballet dancer.  Injured onstage, she faces the loss of her apartment and her mother’s doctors.  Uncle Ivan, known to be a spy, offers his help if she will become a Sparrow, trained to seduce and obtain information valuable to the State.  The training, referred to as “whore school,” is demeaning and Dominika looks for a way out.  She is sent to Budapest to intercept Nate, a known CIA spy who is handling a mole in the Russian government.  Nate immediately discovers her background and tries to turn her into a double agent.  Can he trust her?  Can either side trust her?

Jennifer Lawrence is Dominika, and if you can get past the terrible accent, plays a woman who is boiling beneath the surface, with good reason.  Joel Edgerton is Nate. For some reason, I just didn’t see his character as a spy; he seemed more like a newspaper reporter.  Matthias Schoenaerts is Ivan, and is solid as the slimy uncle.  Two fine actors that need more screen time are Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds, both superiors to Ivan.  Charlotte Rampling as the Matron of the Sparrow school was cast well as was Mary Louise Parker as a Chief of Staff for a US Senator.

While I admit that I am biased against horror movies, I also admit that I am biased in favor of spy movies.  Probably the result of too many James Bond movies as a kid.  You need to be forewarned that besides nudity, you will witness rapes and torture, neither easy to watch.  The aforementioned critics clearly downgraded the movie because of perceived gratuitous sex and violence, especially given today’s climate.  Given that countries have used females to seduce government officials for centuries, it certainly is not surprising that a “school” was established in Russia, and likely elsewhere.   As they say, “light is the best disinfectant” and the director was trying to show how degrading this “training” was.  Could he have been a little more circumspect?  Yes, but this is Hollywood.  Bottom line–if you like agents and double agents, feints and double-crosses, surprises and plot twists, you will overlook its faults.  At 140 minutes, the movie sped by for me.  As soon as I finish my Orphan X books, I may give these books a look-see.

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Dominika is recruited to a school for a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission is to target a C.I.A. agent who is working with a Russian mole. fandango And vexmovies

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• What Is Cinema?

Red Sparrow Review: Beauty and Brutality, but Not Enough Bite

By Richard Lawson

The thinking goes—and the fact largely is—that the six (perhaps soon to be five) major studios don’t put out mid-budget movies geared toward adults anymore. It’s all animated sequels and franchise movies broad and bland enough to appeal to big foreign markets. So when the rare one comes along—like Francis Lawrence’s spy thriller, Red Sparrow, out from Fox on March 2—those of us clamoring for some glossy, sophisticated entertainment really want it to be good. But maybe we’re putting too much burden on these endangered creatures, smothering them with all our desperate expectation. I think Red Sparrow might suffer that fate; when you’re looking for great, just fine starts to seem bad.

Or something. My point is, Red Sparrow is perfectly O.K., a handsomely mounted espionage drama that never really gets the blood up but proves to be passable, if graphic, entertainment here in the doldrums of late winter. Sure, I wish it were better, but I’ll take what I can get. (And, really, the fact that a $69 million movie would qualify as mid-budget is sort of insane.) Based on Jason Matthews’s novel, Red Sparrow is at its best when it lets itself be a little playful. Which doesn’t happen much. Most of the film is a dour, self-serious wallow—though not an unworthy one.

There’s a lot of torture in this movie, and a good deal of rape and sexual assault. If all that doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, you’re right; it’s not. But Red Sparrow isn’t a miserabilist, sadistic movie. Lawrence (that’s Lawrence the director, not star Jennifer Lawrence ) skirts the edges of the world of cruel, leering exploitation, but doesn’t go all the way. The film stays sober and clear-eyed, showing us all this unflinching violence not to titillate, I don’t think, but to alarm.

Though alarm is titillation for some, isn’t it? And Red Sparrow certainly has its gaze aimed squarely at its heroine’s sexuality. The movie is predicated on it. So it’s hard to argue that Lawrence the director isn’t trying to stir up a particular kind of mood—for a portion of his audience, at least.

Maybe Red Sparrow is nothing more than torture-and-abuse porn given a classy polish after all. It’s possible I’m just not watching it incisively enough. But to me, the film reads as a bit more respectable than that—even a bit stuffier. This isn’t, say, Paul Verhoeven’s Red Sparrow, which I expect would generate a lot more controversy.

As is, Red Sparrow is a stately B-movie, enlivened by committed performances and striped with florid streaks of brutality. Lawrence the actress plays Dominika, a Bolshoi ballerina who suffers a terrible injury and is coerced into a new career as a sort of sex spy by her slippery government agent uncle, Vanya. (He’s played by Matthias Schoenaerts, and yes, he really is called Uncle Vanya.) We see Dominika’s intense training, led by a questionably accented Charlotte Rampling, as Dominika learns to use sex and desire as a weapon, exploiting people’s weaknesses and wants to extract information. But when her first assignment doesn’t go as planned, Dominika finds herself in a game of double and triple and even quadruple crosses, fighting to fulfill her mission—whatever that may actually be.

Which could make for a twisty, capery little thriller. But Red Sparrow is interested in heavier things, exploring themes of trust and duty and identity. These inquests don’t really yield any revelatory insights, but they give the movie a sort of prestige heft that is rare for the season.

None of this intensity would work if Lawrence (the actress) wasn’t selling it so well. While she too has a wobbly accent (everyone does; just go with it), she’s otherwise firmly in command of the picture, even in scenes when Dominika is captive and subjected to horrible things. She taps into some of that Winter’s Bone resolve and resourcefulness—though Dominika is miles away from Ree Dolly, both young women have a flitiness that doesn’t so much mask hurt and anguish as feed off of it, jiu-jitsuing pain into outward strength. I suppose that was true of Katniss Everdeen as well—Lawrence directed Lawrence in three of the Hunger Games films—but Dominika has more shaded motives than the girl from District 12. She is from Russia, after all.

I like Lawrence’s performance best when she actually gets to do some spy stuff, like in a centerpiece scene that feels flown in from a different movie, in which Dominika cultivates a boozy senatorial staffer played by Mary-Louise Parker (making the absolute most of a little). Here, Red Sparrow shows us a Dominika who’s a smooth pro, a mode I wish we saw her in more often. She’s so often being victimized—by marks, by her fellow Russians—that we don’t really get to enjoy watching her do what she’s been so rigorously trained to do. I wanted to see Dominika succeed, but Red Sparrow ’s world (and maybe our world) is intent on punishing her.

Red Sparrow ’s deceptively simple knot of intrigue—it involves a hunt for a mole in the Russian intelligence apparatus—holds our attention, even though the film stretches to an almost ungainly 140 minutes. (Part of wanting adult-oriented movies is learning to live with long movies, folks.) Lawrence enjoys some chemistry with her co-star Joel Edgerton, playing an American operative who’s onto Dominika’s deceptions. But just how onto them? That becomes one of the movie’s central questions. Red Sparrow spends a lot of time bouncing back and forth to the rhythm of “but does she know that he knows that she knows that he knows,” which quickly gets too repetitive and saps the movie of its stakes. If no one can fool anyone, then what are we all doing here?

By Anthony Breznican

By Julie Miller

Do you want to hear about the sex and violence, and the film’s frequent commingling of the two? Probably, as that’s certainly what the movie’s been marketed on. And, yes, it’s all there: the nudity, the torture, the shower scene. One particularly long interrogation sequence is almost operatically visceral: blunt and intimate and, worst of all, credible. There’s a brief but harrowing rape scene that is maybe the movie’s most direct courting of the problematic, ending in a bloody mess reminiscent of a particular scene in Gone Girl. But for all that—which is not to dismiss the severity or weight of these scenes, especially the ones of sexual assault— Red Sparrow feels oddly subdued by certain movie terms. It’s not an action movie by any means, and those expecting Atomic Blonde, with its mix of crunching violence and lurid innuendo, will be disappointed.

I expect this adult thriller for adults won’t do well in audience polling. It so steadfastly maintains its solemn rigor that it never generates much heat, despite the fact that it features Jennifer Lawrence doing a nude fight scene and all that. Which is a shame, because again, we want more movies like this. Or, maybe not like this—we could use fewer stories about the abuse and objectification of women told by men—but more movies that are similarly proportioned. There’s more than a glimmer of something engaging in Red Sparrow —a grim, sorrowful thriller with a keenly rendered texture—but the film gets tripped up as it both resists classification and invites all of it in. Is it a nasty little B-movie thriller or a somber and arty character study? A major star top-lined butt-kicking flick or a small showcase for an actress trying to assert herself into more adult roles?

Red Sparrow can’t figure that out, or refuses to figure it out, and loses itself in that ambivalence. It’s a funny irony, I suppose, that this movie born of the too-sparsely populated middle range ultimately seems so uncomfortable dwelling between its poles.

Richard Lawson

Chief critic.

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