Unfathomable ‘Red Sparrow’ doesn’t invite the audience into its game (Movie review)

“Red Sparrow” is boring, a bit confusing, and almost unnecessarily dirty. The main character (Jennifer Lawrence) basically goes to whore school to become one of the Red Sparrows, Russian spies trained to use sex to achieve their goals. J-Law goes topless and I wonder if the filmmakers asked her to do it in hopes of bringing people to the theaters, because the movie itself can’t do it.

The movie is basically a slow-burn Russian spy thriller that doesn’t clue you in on exactly what is happening, or who is betraying who, until the very end. The problem with that is that they don’t tell you enough throughout the movie to even get you guessing. Instead, you just watch and have no idea what is going on.

It’s sad, really. I like Lawrence, and I also think Joel Edgerton is highly underrated, but even their solid performances can’t get me to enjoy this movie. Save yourself the time, skip the movie and Google the videos/pictures of J-Law online.

My rating: