Red Sparrow, the Russian sparrow springs into action
(B2) Dominika Egorova, a young Russian ballerina sees her career interrupted following an accident. Her uncle Ivan, concerned about her future..., recruits her for the Russian secret services. She becomes a "sparrow", educated the hard way, in the public school IV, a special school of the services and trained to do psychological manipulation.
His main mission: to unmask the traitor who, within the Russian government, reveals state secrets to the Americans. She is responsible for approaching the American handler, who left Moscow hastily for Budapest and its Olympic swimming pool which serves as a place of exchange. Through reciprocal brainwashing and amorous chases, in the Hungarian capital, Vienna or London, we don't know which of Jennifer Lawrence (alias Dominika Egorova) and Joel Edgerton (alias Nate Nash) is manipulating whom.
Behind the scenes, the Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (aka Ivan Egorov, the slightly vicious uncle) and the British Charlotte Rampling, excellent in the role of the Matron, the director of the spy school, play their role of string pullers. But these, sometimes, escape them. Even the end, worthy of the most beautiful exchanges of spies, casts doubt on the meaning of the manipulation.
Back to reality
An excellent thriller with a geopolitical background, taken from the eponymous novel by Jason Matthews, himself a former CIA agent, where one often wonders what is the part of reality and fiction. At a time when the United Kingdom is renewing, in a Cold War atmosphere, with the (attempted) assassination of Sergei Skripal (1), one wonders if this reality... is not the continuation of the film .
Release: March 21 in France, already on the canvas in Belgium...
(1) This ex-Russian spy, who had defected and entered the service of Her Gracious Majesty, had been released in 2010, was in critical condition as well as his daughter Yulia who had come to return to him after being poisoned on Sunday last (March 4), by a nerve agent so powerful that it also hit the policeman who came to help them. Two successive meetings in 'Cobra' format of the government took place. And the government promises to take the matter to the Atlantic Alliance.