Based on the book written by Jason Matthews (formerly of the CIA), Red Sparrow is directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 & 2, Constantine) with a screenplay by Justin Haythe (The Lone Ranger, A Cure for Wellness). The book was originally part of a trilogy and even though the Red Sparrow film bombed domestically, it made nearly 1.5 times its budget overseas. Film adaptations of Matthews’ other two books in the trilogy, Palace of Treason and The Kremlin’s Candidate, could materialize in the coming years due to Red Sparrow’s $148.5 million worldwide lifetime box office gross on a $69 million budget.
Jennifer Lawrence portrays a well-known ballet dancer named Dominika Egorova. Taking place in the present day in Russia, Dominika supports her feeble mother (played by Nip/Tuck’s Joely Richardson), but that support comes into question after Dominika sustains a career ending injury. With nowhere else to turn, Dominika relies on the assistance of her uncle Ivan Vladimirovich Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone) who works for the Russian government. She is recruited to State School Four where she will become a “Sparrow” for Russia and learn to use her body as a weapon. Meanwhile, a US agent named Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) has a Russian mole who has been giving away all of Russia’s secrets to the US. Dominika is assigned with uncovering the name of Nash’s contact.
There’s a lot to process with Red Sparrow and yet not nearly enough to be completely memorable. The big draw for the film is that this is the first time Jennifer Lawrence has been entirely nude on-screen. Red Sparrow isn’t about showcasing beautiful bodies or having an erotic presentation; the spy thriller thrives on making the audience feel just as violated as Dominika is throughout the film. She’s raped twice over the course of 140-minutes; once to destroy who she once was and another time for power purposes. She’s also tortured heavily in the film and the fight sequences have this raw brutality to them that hit hard enough to almost make you feel sore just from watching them.
But strip the shock and cringe elements from Red Sparrow and all that’s left is a spy film that takes too long to get its message across. There are side elements that eat up valuable moments of the story that would be considered a total waste, but they somehow U-turn back into Dominika’s story by the time it’s all over. Perhaps the film is poorly edited, but a better solution would be to trim or cut those sequences entirely. The film has a tendency to show the audience too much. The element of sex follows the same rules of a horror film. The people who experience said intercourse are either about to die or wish they were dead due to their lives being ripped apart by the government. Red Sparrow has a visual appeal with beautiful foreign countries, exquisite interior design, and a use of color (mostly red) that makes nearly every scene cater to your optic nerve.
As Dominika begins to work for her uncle, her mother tells her, “You hold something back. Don’t give him all of you.” Red Sparrow isn’t an enjoyable film; it’s a power struggle between two nations. The story seems to run in circles, but it does succeed in making you feel uncomfortable. It’s understandable why Jennifer Lawrence did this film since it’s so different from anything she’s ever done and Francis Lawrence has somehow found a way to blur the line between beauty and terror, but the downside is Red Sparrow isn’t entertaining to watch. The story fails to captivate and instead leaves you feeling groggy and lethargic. Dominika’s journey is tiresome just from witnessing it. Red Sparrow temporarily stains your corneas with disgust and humiliation, but is rinsed away and forgotten about as soon as you stop watching it like a bad first date or messy one night stand.
The Blu-ray of the film is loaded with over 95 minutes of extras. Along with director commentary by Francis Lawrence and deleted scenes (12:20) with optional director commentary, the disc includes six featurettes:
- A New Cold War: Origination and Adaptation (12:42) dives into being based on Jason Matthews’ book, the studio being behind a hard R-rating, and going into detail how the film blurs the loyalty between the Russian and American governments.
- Agents Provocateurs: The Ensemble Cast (15:21) talks about how different the tone of Red Sparrow is from anything Jennifer Lawrence has done up to this point and how comfortable Jennifer Lawrence and Francis Lawrence have become after working together on four films while Francis continues to push Jennifer as far as her abilities and talent as an actress go.
- Tradecraft: Visual Authenticity (13:28) showcases the sets of the film, production design, architecture, landscape, and the intricate details of how the film was designed while including comments from cinematographer Jo Willems and costume designer Trish Summerville among others.
- Heart of the Tempest: On Location (10:56) has production designer Maria Djurkovic discussing how the film was shot in Moscow, Budapest, Slovakia, Vienna and London while also looking at the visual consistency of the film and how the crew scouted locations.
- Welcome to Sparrow School: Ballet and Stunts (12:12) chronicles how they made a self-admitted clumsy oaf (Jennifer Lawrence) seem like a competent ballerina. She trained for six days a week, three hours a day, and had a dance double from the waist down.
- A Puzzle of Need: Post-Production (14:08) looks at how the film relies on being shot in center frame, visual symmetry, wide shots, its dark content and mature factor, documents the film editing process, the importance of sound design, and how James Newton Howard composed the mostly orchestral score.
Red Sparrow is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, on demand, and digital HD.
