Director Francis Lawrence... seems to have reasoned that, because Russian literature is so long and slow, making his movie long and slow would be the path to authenticity.

| Mar 9, 2020

There is only so much Jennifer Lawrence can do in this set up.

| Jul 29, 2019

Needlessly sadistic and often troubling in tone, some keen supporting performances can't save this uneven and forgetful film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2019

There isn't much chemistry between the leads, and their sex scenes don't sizzle, but the fault lies with the dopey, confusing script by Justin Haythe that fails to develop their characters with any depth or purpose.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 8, 2018

Red Sparrow sounds as if it has a foolproof recipe: sex, spies and Russia. But the only way to make sense of this thudding, clichéd would-be thriller is to think of it as an unintentional comedy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 8, 2018

[Jennifer Lawrence] throws herself into her role with abandon (cf. mother!), suggesting, pace how some directors cast her, that her bravura dramatic energy flourishes best in worlds of genre extremes.

| Mar 8, 2018

A ponderous and abstract yet fascinating spy thriller.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 7, 2018

We remain in suspense. We don't know who is hiding what from whom. The emphasis on styling reinforces this dynamic, but it also inevitably takes away from the kind of characterization that marks an actually good spy movie.

| Mar 6, 2018

Red Sparrow is intended to be a sexy thriller, but it's little more than a canvas for one director's limited vision of women, of which there are only two stereotypes.

| Mar 5, 2018

[Lawrence] spends much of the new film looking blank and sculpted, and all the double-dealings lend her not a tincture of mystery.

| Mar 5, 2018

The film is too anchored by silliness to take off.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 4, 2018

Red Sparrow is a promising beginning to a potential new spy franchise. Just be aware of its unexpectedly barbed edges.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 4, 2018

The tone is relentlessly bleak, and for all its depraved sexuality the film's gaze is more drooling teenage boy than genuinely adult or erotic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 4, 2018

It's the centerpiece of high-gloss, highly sexualized espionage claptrap with an overlay of faux female empowerment: Dominika is pretty much an equal-opportunity scourge.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 2, 2018

Red Sparrow is like 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,' but only if it were directed by Showgirls-era Paul Verhoeven. That's something of a compliment, but it's also a warning.

| Mar 2, 2018

Lurid but not quite trashy thriller from director Francis Lawrence, who puts his Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence through trials that never made it into their previous, PG-13 collaboration.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 2, 2018

By homing in on her character, the filmmakers stay true to her part of the book, but they cut away too much of what gives this kind of entertainment its charm and variety.

| Mar 2, 2018

This is a cleverly scripted, well-acted and in its way timely movie, but not one for the squeamish.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 2, 2018

Jennifer Lawrence's focused, nakedly raw performance is sensational.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 2, 2018

There is, one suspects, a post-Cold War caper buried deep in this muddled, insanely boring film. But apparently it has no intention of surfacing or blowing its cover.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 2, 2018