Red Sparrow
Thriller Drama Mystery
Ex-Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to a secret Russian intelligence program where students are trained to use sex as a weapon.
"Red Sparrow" is a highly stylised and sexualised espionage film masquerading as a testament to female empowerment. Unfortunately, it feels more like a cheap exercise in exploitation rather than the enthralling spy-thriller it obviously had the potential to be. The narrative is more convoluted than clever and moves at a slow pace, with the overlong running time rendering suspense somewhat inert. While the twists are quite shrewd during the final act, a host of underdeveloped characters (with equally underdeveloped "Russian" accents) mean this sparrow doesn't fly the nest. Nyet.
Andrew O'DeaWide Release 1st March 2018
Twentieth Century Fox 140 mins