There is no shortage of spy movies at the moment. With the hugely successful Kingsman films topping the box office and the timeless James Bond series continuing to set the standard for the genre, it isn’t easy to draw in audiences for a standalone film without any major franchise connections. But in Red Sparrow, director Francis Lawrence flies in the face of convention by creating a new kind of spy movie that, despite some heavy-handed plot points, makes its own mark on the genre.
The feminist angle that Red Sparrow takes is hard to brush off. Jennifer Lawrence has made clear in interviews that this movie is her attempt at reclaiming her bodily autonomy, which was threatened during the heavily publicised 2014 leaks of nude celebrity photos. As such it deals head-on with the issues of consent and rape, so consider this a warning—the film’s graphic imagery may not be for the faint-hearted.
Lawrence’s character, Dominika, is forced to submit to a government organisation that exerts control over the bodies of its subjects, using them to seduce, manipulate, and extract information from foreign enemies. Her own development into a resourceful, liberated woman is as enthralling as it is potentially problematic, given that it is frequently driven by the men who rape and torture her. While these deeply uncomfortable scenes succeed in forcing us into her state of anguish, at times they border on gratuitous.
The plot itself suffers when it tries too hard to emulate common spy-thriller tropes, occasionally becoming a convoluted parody of the genre in its confusing maze of double and triple-crossing agents. By the time the second half of Red Sparrow rolls around it manages to redeem itself, with genuinely suspenseful sequences and twists propelling a gripping plot that settles comfortably into the director’s feminist vision.
It isn’t uncommon to see spy films set during the Cold War exploring the tense ‘U.S. vs Russia’ dynamic, but Red Sparrow challenges our expectations by bringing this conflict into a modern-day setting. Its justification is believable enough, with a simple explanation that the Cold War never really ended—it just splintered into more covert operations. In doing so, Red Sparrow plays on the current tension between the two countries today, infusing the plot with the quiet dread and urgency that underlies society’s common fears.
Despite its imperfect script, Jennifer Lawrence leads Red Sparrow through its twisting narrative to deliver a strong, provocative performance. She isn’t the first female spy protagonist in cinema history, but she still subverts our expectations of the genre enough to thrill an audience within the confines of an exhilarating but flawed film.
