You thought that the time of strange accents died when Alo, Alo finished!? Do not be fooled: Red Sparrow, an American film from 2018, is full of actors whose native language is English and who speak with a strange Russian accent, following the logic that escapes the human mind comfortably placed right there in 2018. This procedure may make sense when those actors who play Russians need to speak English as a foreign language, but in the “Treason” you'll suffer while listening actors with very recognizable voices, such as Jeremy Ayrsons and Charlotte Rempling, who, together with Jennifer Lawrence, are trying to sound like the "English" accent of the average Russian on steroids and thus speak to one another, acting Russians.
What do they do in Red Sparrow while they speak the language we should believe is Russian? Jennifer Lawrence plays the primabalerina Dominika Igorova, to whom her clumsy teammate gets on her tibia and completely destroys her leg and the possibility of continuing her ballet career. Of course, it turns out that this accident is just not accidental, because the ballerinas are crazy and competitive, but that's not so important and there is no reason to be in the movie. Dominika is desperate and has no money to support her sick mother, so Uncle Vanja rolls out an extremely suspicious test which ultimately leads to the program "Red Sparrow" - a school that trains spy-seductions in very unconventional ways. They undress in front of themselves, humiliate themselves, watch recordings of high officials and try to figure out what they would do, and watch each other's recordings of having sex with some barely mature soldiers, all under the patronage of Charlotte Rempling as the stiff manager of this program, who barely shows any kind of facial expressions because that's how the Russians do it. Of course, Dominika is a natural talent and soon goes to her first mission in Budapest to find out who is the insider that gives Americans informations about the work of the Russian intelligence service by hurting the CIA agent Nate who recruited the insider.
It is clear that this opens many doors for various (double) Red sparrow, spying on anyone who comes in contact with the main characters, murders, torture in all ways, forbidden sex, and of course turnovers, and so those exciting things that have the habit of happening in spy thrillers. In Red Sparrow, all these doors open, several times, and occasionally they seem to have the potential to take us somewhere interesting, but the film gets complicated in all its complications and maniacs begin to strike in all directions at the half of the movie when things should already be set up and lead us to some sort of rescript. However, there is a moment when the film almost succeds to excite some viewers who are less resistant to the excitement that can be caused by the chase of a van where only one ramp is broken and almost all traffic signs are respected or the scene "will I enter this Budapest tram or not?".
Okay, there are not many thrilling spy scenes in this spy thriller, but here we are talking about spy with bangs that use sex as the main weapon, who must have contributed to the general concentration of the audience at all? In short, it did not. Most of the sex we see in this movie is this strange sterile training in Russia and then even two scenes where Dominika and Nate are somewhat fussing and then drinking coffee. Probably we need to assume that an action has taken place between. All in all, reddish power we do not see too much during the film.
It is important to emphasize once again that the action of the film takes place in the present, although you can easily make it happen during the Cold War, but then a smartphone pops up and reminds you that we are in the 21st century. Let's forgive the fact that every scene in Russia looks like it was filmed in a concrete factory and apartments 40 years ago (in Budapest also). Even one scene from the CIA offices looks the way of communism thing, so it looks like it's all coated over with a filter that we call "CommieChic". Because of this, the whole movie has the impression that you are stuck in the past in which someone from the airplane has nabbed some modern devices and somehow a bit more atypical dressing.
Between unexciting scenes, the Red Sparrow varies the big faces of Jennifer Lawrence with a special focus on the bangs, shows her mother and how hard it is in Russia, and some unnecessarily detailed recorded brutal tortures where the Nate's skin is especially pointed, that is, the skin that leaves the effect that the peeler will leave on potatoes. Next time you take a skirt in your hands, consider all your potentials.
It's time to mention the acting in Red Sparrow, although there's really not so much to say about it. The old guard is usually good, but no one stands out because there is nothing to stand out, and Lawrence is usually boring, and it seems that, as her career moves, she's more and more boring. She is mostly faceless, and the peak of emotion is an occasional scream because she or someone she cares for was physically injured. Although she plays a spy-seduct, she does not give a big impression of some femme fatale, nor any mystery.
All in all, Red Sparrow is a good movie, but nothing special. Watch it if you unconditionally love spy stories, and if you are entertained to listening actors speaking Russian who speak English with accent. It may be interesting to say that the film is based on the CIA agent's writing and allegedly has a lot of truth in it. There you go, at leat we can speculate. The order of magnitude of this speculation on the net is mainly - the Russians are crazy, look at what they were doing. Maybe you are the person who will bring some fun into that narrative. Tell us if you do it!
Thank you for reading!