Red Sparrow (4 Stars)

"Red Sparrow" is a spy thriller that was made in 2018. It stars Jennifer Lawrence with dyed brown hair and a fake Russian accent.

Don't worry, she reverts to her natural hair colour later in the film.

She plays Dominika Egorova, a ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet. She breaks her leg in an accident on stage. She can soon walk again, but her career as a dancer is over. Her uncle, the deputy director of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, hires her to join the Sparrows, an elite group of agents who are trained to sexually seduce foreigners. Despite her initial reluctance to use her body as a weapon, she excels in her training. After a few months she's sent to Budapest to seduce Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), a CIA agent who's receiving information from a high-ranking Russian informer. Her mission is to find out the name of the informer.

She underestimates Nate. Soon after meeting her he recognises that she's a Sparrow acting undercover in Budapest, but she continues with her game. When he challenges her, she claims that she wants to defect to the West. Is that true, or just a ploy to get him to trust her? The cat and mouse game continues for the rest of the film, and the viewer is left unsure of what she really wants. The film is probably the most effective the first time you watch it, when you don't know the answer, but it's still good enough for repeated watching.

The film has gained notoriety for its sexual training scenes. The Sparrows are expected to strip naked in front of the class to demonstrate their seduction skills. The ice cold Matron, played to perfection by Charlotte Rampling, drills this lesson into the trainees:

"Every human being is a puzzle of need. Learn how to be the missing piece, and they will give you everything".

Wise words. Find out what a man wants and give it to him. Dominika is told what sort of pornography Nate watches on the Internet before she starts her assignment. This, combined with her personal assessment of him, tells her what strategy to use.

It's all for Mother Russia. Vladimir Putin would be proud.

Success Rate:  + 0.2

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