Jennifer Lawrence plays a young ballet dancer, the prima in the Russian Bolshoi. When during a performance she breaks her leg, her entire life and financial support system is destroyed. In to the rescue is her Uncle, a high ranking Russian special police officer with an opportunity to make some money and provide for herself and her mother. It turns bad, and Lawrence is sent off to spy school (whore school) where she learns how to use any means necessary to get information from a target. The rest of the film then follows our newly minted spy as she takes on a job of finding a mole and protecting herself and her mother. In many ways, this is a traditional new-cold-war, spy thriller. But it wasn't fun. So even though films like Atomic Blonde and Baby Driver were equally graphic, they were fun and this was not. I think it has to do with how personal this film is. The violence (physical, emotional, sexual, etc.) is deeply personal here. There is no 'gamification', no sense that the brutality is comic, or stylized. Instead it was disturbingly close, bringing into the open a raw striving for power, and the traumatic effects that power and violence has on a person. Maybe the writing and acting here is stronger, the ownership by Lawrence of who this character is, and the life that has been put upon her, where often the actors are not given this opportunity. But if this is so, I might want more. Push me harder so that I have to think about this power/brutality relationship. Most people will miss this point and merely walk away dissatisfied. I nearly did.
3 stars (out of 5)
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