

She is to travel to Budapest, where she must meet and melt a C.I.A. To this end, she is sent to a special school, where Matron (Rampling) gives frosty instruction in the carnal arts, while decrying the weakness of the West, which she describes as “drunk on shopping and social media.” How unlike Russia, where everyone stays home, quite sober, writing letters in longhand and reading Pushkin.
#Red sparrow professional
He thinks that Dominika would make an excellent sparrow-a professional seductress, trained to pitch her woo at malleable foes of the motherland. If you expect the rest of the film to be set on a country estate, with a drooping doctor and an elderly nurse who knits, prepare to be disappointed, for this Vanya belongs to the state security service.

In search of an alternative career, she goes to her uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts). The story, set in the present day, and adapted by Justin Haythe from the novel by Jason Matthews, tells of Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi, who becomes slightly less prima when another dancer lands on her shin. The look on Irons’s face toward the end, as he winds down with a cigar, a glass of brandy, and no dialogue, is one of hallowed relief. And the result of that is that we stop listening to what is actually being said. Sadly, all three of them play Russians, the result being that, when called upon to converse, they have to turn the Slavic dial up to eleven. The old problem resurfaces, with world-class clunkiness, in Francis Lawrence’s “ Red Sparrow,” which features, among other talents, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciarán Hinds, each of whom is blessed with a voice of delectable resonance and depth. As the captain of a Russian submarine in “ The Hunt for Red October” (1990), he delivered his lines in purest unadulterated Connery, and nobody complained. Who laid down this risible rule? And which actor has ever felt anything but discomfort when asked to obey it? Thank heaven for major players like Sean Connery, who are wise enough (and major enough) to treat it with disdain.

That might make sense if you were addressing your English-speaking enemy in his own tongue, but, no, you must maintain the habit even when talking to your fellow-Germans-or, as they would call themselves, Tchermansz, since they indulge in the same nonexistent patois. Then, there is the third and most common option, which defies all logic: you enter a weird catarrhal limbo that requires you to expectorate the words in English with a heavy Gothic croak. Two, you speak in your normal tone, and your German identity is implied and understood. One, you speak German, and you are subtitled. Who needs ’em? If you are playing a Nazi in a Hollywood movie, say, you have three options.
