Movie Title: Red Sparrow
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Irons
Review: Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets CIA agent, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust. Lawrence does a fantastic job as the lead, who plays the sexy seductive spy rather convincingly. The film is graphic, and quite frankly over the top at times to the point where the violence and nudity is distracting. While the premise of Red Sparrow is intriguing and enough to keep the viewer engaged, the story evolves slowly and some of the twists and turns are hard to follow. I would call Red Sparrow an overall enjoyable movie, but perhaps not a movie with much re-watch value. Some of the content is not for the faint of heart, but if you're a fan of spy thrillers or Jennifer Lawrence, it's definitely worth a look!
Fun Fact: To prepare for the role, Jennifer Lawrence did ballet and practiced a Russian accent for four months, spending three hours a day working with the Hollywood ballet instructor Kurt Froman. She said it was difficult because she had never wanted to dance ballet.