Photo from film.it

By Vaidik Trivedi
Staff Writer

Pending medical bills of a sick mother and a broken leg compels Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), a ballerina dancer in Russia, to say yes to her devilish uncle’s proposition to become a sex weapon for the government. We are introduced to the ruthless character of Dominika in the first few minutes when she beats the soul out of her ex-ballerina partner for betraying her. This is important to understand why Dominika is different from all others.

She is then taken to an isolated area for training like every other spy movie, but this learning center is different from the others. It teaches its disciples the art of spying through seduction. During her process to become a ‘sparrow’ in this institute, Dominika is asked to strip naked, in private and public, and is a survivor of attempted rape. She is chosen by her superiors because of her unmatched fighting abilities and power to see through human characteristics.

She is then assigned to spy on an American agent, Nathaniel Nash (Joel Edgerton), to extract information about a mole in the Kremlin. She decides to play the Kremlin by forming an alliance with Nate and drags on that very obvious suspense for nearly an hour.

The movie has a foolproof plot line: sex, violence, spies, vodka and Mother Russia. But the movie comes off as a failure to properly mix these spices together. Marketed on seduction and violence, you will find a lack of both in the movie. Rather than sex and violence, you will find unnecessary torture and torment. Usually spy movies have amazing suspense or surprising kicker, but this movie was quite predictable.

Jennifer Lawrence has done a phenomenal job and so did everyone in the cast, including Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons and Matthias Schoenaerts. Still, in my opinion, you do not need to watch this, and spend your hard earned money on a wannabe spy movie.