Some say that people have 3 basic needs. However, spies have one more need, namely information. A spy will manipulate in order to obtain information by utilizing the needs of others against these 3 basic things. Lawrence's character in Red Sparrow takes advantage of the need for sex. In this case, the position of women is more profitable. It is easier for men to be tempted by women than to women seduced by men. Women become more effective spies than everyone in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy .
But before they had to be trained first in special schools. "Whore school" is the name given by Dominica (Lawrence) to the school. Please translate your own meaning. In this school, Dominica must forget his identity and self-esteem. The counselor ( Charlotte Rampling ) asserts that their bodies are state property. One of the curriculum requires students to engage in sexual interactions. Hold your horse, a flirty reader; this is not as fascinating as your fantasy. This activity is paraded in front of the class, often in an embarrassing context, to then be the subject of analysis.
So how does Dominica CAN go to school there? It turned out that the one who sent him was a high-ranking SVR spy agency, Vanya ( Matthias Schoenaerts ) who also deserved the Uncle Diteji's all-time charter. Which uncle tried to send his own nephew into "whore school"? From the beginning, he seemed to affirm that even to his family members he was being uncompromising. Or maybe he has another "motive"? Hmm.
How Dominica Wants to join is told through a brilliant opening chapter that successfully pumps our interest; narrative peak that can not be passed by the next film stage. While an American spy, Nate Nash ( Joel Edgerton ) does a spy (ya iyalaah) job, we see Dominican dancing ballet in a magnificent theater before ending a tragedy that breaks the foot. This accident kills his career and threatens his financial life. Uncle Vanya came and I would just say that the help given was not what Dominica had expected.
After graduation, Dominica was assigned to find out the identity of a betrayer who became an informant for Nate who is now drawn to Budapest because of an incident in Russia. For that, Dominica had to leave for Budapest and try to get close to Nate. Sounds cliche; we think we can guess that Nate will fall in love with Dominica or maybe vice versa. However, Nate is smarter than we think. He knows that Dominica is a spy and also not easily manipulated by sex. Very likely both of them cheat on each other.
The film is adapted from a novel titled the same work of Jason Matthews . No doubt his knowledge of the world of spies, because in the real world he is a former CIA agent. Maybe this is the real spy world. No big explosions or sophisticated equipment or acrobatic action sequences, but just an information game. For the shortest I remember, the only scene that required Lawrence to do a sequence that approached the action was when he danced ballet at the beginning of the movie.
Everyone seems to play a separate agenda unknown to others around them. Likewise with Dominica, which is difficult to predict the contents of his head because his expression that looks always numb. He danced with his position; the American agencies felt they could invite Dominica to their side to become double agents, while the Russian agency thought that everything Dominica did, including some odd things, was done in the interest of the mission. It was only at the last moment that we knew who Dominica was in favor, and this was not what I expected.
The film became the next collaboration between Jennifer Lawrence with director Francis Lawrence after the last 3 volumes of The Hunger Games . Here they do not hold back. If you missed the "21+" rating, I need to remind you that this movie is very mature. There are many scenes of abusive torture and sex. Lawrence the director seems to want his film taken seriously, but I get it every time Lawrence the actress throws a dialogue in a Russian-Russian accent, as if just learning English from Hotel Transylvania . Not to mention the fact that most of the Russian top brass is played by familiar British actors, such as Jeremy Irons and Ciaran Hinds .
This makes Red Sparrow too odd to take seriously but is too heavy to be considered an absurd movie. The film is like walking in an awkward line between wanting to be a realistic spy movie or a more mainstream dish. I can also imagine some spectators who would be saturated with the game of "whichever side" of the frequency. Characteristics of this film provoke us to always anticipate, but if the duration reaches 130 minutes, certainly feels boring. Nevertheless, I am quite enjoying the new approach of the spy world. I even swallowed the most absurd part of it.