One hour into the film, as she's being beaten with a pipe by Russian government officials, you could feel the audience's mood shift toward extreme discomfort. It doesn't take one assault to shape Dominika-it takes an endless barrage. Red Sparrow pushes that trope beyond its breaking point. It's a Hollywood cliche at this point to have a rape or assault explain the motivation for revenge or violence. Jennifer Lawrence stars in 'Red Sparrow' (2018). Lawrence makes the most of the role, but even she can't save Red Sparrow from what it is: torture porn. She lives-if a bottomless misery pit can be called a life. Neither lasts very long.The body count is astounding, and there are so many images of naked, beautiful women being beaten, punched in the face, raped and tortured that they truly do begin to blend into a dehumanized mass.Īside from Dominika, of course. Red Sparrow is intended to be a sexy thriller, but it's little more than a canvas for one director's limited vision of women, of which there are only two stereotypes: lovely creatures to be beaten into submission, and cruel, useless hags. After graduating sexy assassin school, she's assigned a case involving a ridiculously-named American spy, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), who figures her out within minutes and enlists her as a double agent-or so it seems. So she allows her incestuous uncle to enroll her in a government-sanctioned program that creates Sparrows-Russian spies who seduce and manipulate their enemies. After her on-stage attack, Dominika can't dance and needs money to afford her terminally-ill mother's healthcare. 20th Century Foxīut Red Sparrow is where hope comes to die.Īdapted from a fanciful novel written by ex-CIA agent Jason Matthews, the film is grade-A pulp. Lawrence regards herself in the mirror before the horrors really begin in 'Red Sparrow'. It was a graphic opening scene, but treated with artistry, and I'm sure I wasn't alone in hoping that every other moment of violence in the film would be treated with similar restraint. A gasp ripped through both theaters-the Russian audience in the film and the one watching the film: Dominika's tibia was broken into an almost 90 degree angle. The camera regards Dominika from above, the dancer splayed out on the stage before bending with an open mouth over her large tutu to see what's happened. Star Jennifer Lawrence's Russian prima ballerina Dominika is attacked by a fellow dancer onstage, who lands on her extended leg with a loud crack. How many naked women need to be assaulted in a film before a director has made his point? Two? Three? For Francis Lawrence, the answer is a pile so big it's impossible to tell the victims apart.Īt the New York premiere of his spy thriller Red Sparrow, released Friday, the director of the final three Hunger Games films thanked his producers for allowing him to "make the art I want to make." He stressed that 20th Century Fox never pressured him to release a PG-13 cut of Red Sparrow, which was a story, he assured the viewers gathered at New York City's Alice Tully Hall, that could only be told with an R rating.īy the end of the first scene, we see why.
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