By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
In “Red Sparrow,” when Russian ballerina Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) suffers a devastating injury, the Bolshoi will no longer pay for her apartment and care for her ailing mother (Joely Richardson).
That’s when her lecherous Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts), deputy director of Russia’s external intelligence agency SVR, makes her an offer she cannot refuse.
Her first assignment is to entice and betray an oligarch, luring him to her hotel room. What she doesn’t realize is that she’ll be raped and he’ll be assassinated. Ivan then tells her she knows too much and will be killed if she doesn’t work full-time for his agency.
She’s referred to State School 4, where the sadistic Matron (Charlotte Rampling), utilizing ritual degradation and humiliation, teaches male and female recruits how to become a “sparrow,” adroit in psychological manipulation and seduction.
“You sent me to whore school,” defiant Dominika accuses Uncle Vanya, who looks alarmingly like Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, American spy Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) is sent to Budapest to contact his secret asset, a high-ranking mole within the Russian government, code-named “Marble.” Steely, highly disciplined Dominika is dispatched there to weave a web of deception, earning his trust and discovering the mole’s identity.
Bearing tinges of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” along with “Atomic Blonde,” it’s confusingly scripted by Justin Haythe, based on the 2013 best-seller by Jason Matthews, and voyeuristically directed by Francis Lawrence (“Hunger Games”), who indulges in far too much brutal, gratuitous violence in the torture sequences.
Grim and gruesome, it’s nevertheless made palatable by fearless Jennifer Lawrence’s audacious performance, plus stalwart support from Jeremy Irons, Ciaran Hinds and Mary-Louise Parker.
FYI: Jennifer Lawrence’s coach was Kurt Froman, the former New York City Ballet dancer who worked with Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis on “Black Swan.” While you see Ms. Lawrence’s face and upper body, the American Ballet Theater’s Isabella Boylston serves as her dance double.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Red Sparrow” is a skewed 7, an exploitative espionage thriller.
Based on David Levithan’s YA best-seller, “Every Day” is an angst-filled, adolescent fantasy, revolving around someone who awakens every morning in a different body.
While the novel took place through the eyes of A, a sensitive soul who occupies the bodies of unsuspecting teenagers for 24 hours, this dramedy shares the focus with 16 year-old Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) who is taken for granted by her cocky boyfriend Nathan (Justin Smith).
One day when A awakens in Nathan’s body, he immediately becomes the attentive beau Rhiannon always wanted, urging her to ditch school to spend a romantic afternoon with him, strolling on the beach, singing “This is the Day,” and sharing their thoughts, hopes and dreams.
But the following day, Nathan is back to his callous, egocentric self, as A’s consciousness moves into another body. Problem is: guileless Rhiannon has fallen in love with A’s shape-shifting spirit, which continues to try to relate to her although it’s encased in a different gender, skin color, etc. each time they hook up. 16, in all.
“Would you love me if I looked like somebody else?” A earnestly inquires because, “The day we met, I felt something I’ve never felt before.”
Adapted by Jesse Andrews (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”), it’s directed by Michael Sucsy (“Grey Gardens,” ”The Vow”), who, unfortunately, dilutes the relevant themes of sexual identity, ambiguous diversity and conventional labeling.
But the complex, supernatural premise remains intriguing, although it poses more questions than it answers. Like: How did this happen to disembodied A? Is a secret government agency involved? And why is actress Maria Bello wasted as Rhiannon’s adulterous mother?
On the Granger Gauge, “Every Day” is a strange, bittersweet 6, examining the poignant limits of possibility.
There’s little to recommend director Eli Roth’s “Death Wish,” a reboot of Michael Winner’s 1974 vigilante thriller in which a mild-mannered architect (Charles Bronson) becomes a vengeful killer after thugs invade his home, kill his wife and assault his daughter.
Moving the location from New York to Chicago, we’re introduced to Dr. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis), who lives in posh suburbia. That’s where his wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) is murdered and his college-age daughter Jordan (Camilla Morrone) is left comatose in a bungled burglary.
Which is ostensibly why this trauma surgeon becomes a vigilante, donning a discarded Trayvon Martin-style hoodie and toting a Glock that he takes from a gangbanger in the ER. Armed and angry, he’s determined to hunt down the three masked culprits and, thereby, avenge his family.
So when Paul sees a carjacking, he shoots the thieves in cold-blood. When a bystander with an iPhone films it, sociopathic Paul becomes a celebrity on social media as the “Grim Reaper.”
What about the police? According to two detectives (Dean Norris, Kimberly Elise), there are just too many homicides — 48 in just one weekend.
Violence-relishing director Eli Roth veers from the original concept, based on Brian Garfield’s 1972 anti-vigilantism novel, updating it to the amoral transformation of a man who saves lives to someone who takes them, justifying righteous violence and pandering to the N.R.A., as smirking/scowling Bruce Willis milks this exploitative, antihero revenge fantasy.
On the Granger Gauge, “Death Wish” is a tepid, ill-timed, trigger-happy 3. Bury it.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
