Movie Guide

Red Sparrow (2018).
In cinemas from Friday, Mar. 2

Directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Justin Haythe, Red Sparrow is a spy film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Jason Matthews. The film stars an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeremy Irons. Elegantly tense and absorbing, Red Sparrow is a rousing crime thriller that arrives at just the right time during the #MeToo movement to serve as a form of much-needed catharsis.

Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is many things. A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs. A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit. A master of seductive and manipulative combat. When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother face a bleak and uncertain future. That’s why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring a perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the programme has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) who tries to convince her he’s the only person she can trust.

If you loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you’ll also love Red Sparrow. Lawrence gives a performance that is sexy and as complex as she can make it, but we leave thinking there was more about Dominika that could have been explored.

More information about the film can be found at www.imdb.com.