Jennifer Lawrence continues to show her diligence and acting skills in "Cardinals" with her old partner Francis Lawrence after 2017's mixed "Mother", only this time she no longer needs to worry about the director being too personal She only needs to have the acting skills in place at any time to complete the task given to her by "Red Sparrow".
This mission is all about "suspense" from beginning to end.
From the beginning of the film, it was Lawrence, like Portman in "Black Swan", who showed the charm of this talented Russian dancer with his hard-working ballet steps, but with the emergence of cross-camera, Joel ·The American agent played by Edgerton appears in a dark park, so Lawrence's graceful dance and Edgerton's unknown actions are entangled together. How can the characters in these two scenes be connected? We've been guessing since then.
However, as the dance speed accelerated, Edgerton was chased by the Russian police. In the end, when he knelt down at the US embassy, he was stunned. Lawrence's slender calf was instantly trampled by the dance partner. This scene is the most shocking in the whole film. However, with the development of the plot, the sense of suspense of the characters continues to arise, so the film continues to hang people's appetites in ambiguous and plausible reversals, making the audience guess how the story will end.
After recovering from his leg injury, Lawrence learned through his uncle that his accident on stage was not accidental, but the result of his dance partner and boyfriend being instigated by another girl. After killing the two of them, Lawrence had no choice. With the help of his uncle's "goodwill", he fell into the Russian Secret Service step by step, and obtained information by selling his color.
It's a tragic Lawrence, but chance comes when the Secret Service lets her seduce Edgerton.
So the good show of the film really came on stage. As an agent, Lawrence did not play cards according to common sense, but exposed her name to let Edgerton know her identity as an agent. Showing her trump card like this seems to be a rookie's mistake, but then Lawrence found out during her dealings with Edgerton that she was just trying to gain Edgerton's trust, skip the unnecessary cat-and-mouse game, and go directly to the update. Advanced psychological warfare.
Because Lawrence also revealed that he knew Edgerton's identity, the two seemed to be exploring each other's truth with their real identities, but in fact they were using true lies to gain false trust, thus having the "falsehood when the truth is true" Fake" strategy.
From this point of view, "Red Sparrow" abandons those stereotypes and uses more advanced routines. It allows two agents, especially Lawrence, the city's deep-rooted "Red Sparrow", to be in the relationship between the Russian Secret Service and the CIA. Everywhere. For example, when Edgerton recruited her and asked her to be a double spy to obtain Russian intelligence, she agreed immediately; but after helping the Americans to crack the intelligence but was known to the Russian side, she justly said: she is just a I hope to gain more trust from the Americans, so as to obtain more advanced intelligence. The reason for serving the Americans and revealing the Russian spies in the United States is just "small and big".
This kind of plot, both true and false, runs through the entire second half of "The Cardinals", so you can't figure out which side Lawrence belongs to in terms of the plot? Whether her heart is willing to be a Russian "cardinal" or an American double agent, this ambiguous espionage atmosphere is really annoying.
But this sense of suspense was completely broken after the top Russian military officer revealed that he was a double agent of the United States. This is the most regrettable part of the film. It does not make the ending open-ended, nor does it allow Lawrence, a Russian agent, to have the initiative, nor does it allow the audience to think deeply about the current relationship between Russia and the United States, but it just gives you a definite answer at the end, so that the entire layout is become a gimmick.
Therefore, the end of "Red Sparrow" shows a "earth taste" of "Wolf Warrior 2" style, the kind of unilateral obscenity complex of Americans, which completely defeated the model that should have been used as a special agent film in the post-Cold War period. After all, since the end of the Cold War, using the Soviet Union or Russia as a direct adversary to shape various fighting methods between US and Soviet agents has long lost its realistic background in today's era.
But it is really a good proposition to show the decisive role of freedom and the country and the state on individuals by the chemical reaction produced by Russian agents after contacting with American agents!
Lawrence can be tortured and mentally tortured by government agents in Russia, or she can be tricked into the "Cardinals" organization by her uncle by perverted means, but she will never give up everything just by seeing "freedom", let alone It's just promised "freedom", not real freedom. "America" is portrayed as a slightly flawed, but fully guaranteed backer for citizens in "Red Sparrow". As long as you convert to the "Realm of Liberty", you will have bread.
More ironically, the secretary of the Senate in the U.S. government surrendered to the Russian Secret Service for money, and was set as a worm of the United States, and the ending could only be killed. Being able to add an official and rank to the rank reveals a patriotic demeanor who is loyal to the country. Let me ask: Which "loyalty" is the agent played by Lawrence, and which "country" is he serving?
The root cause is that this special agent film made by the Americans, while dwarfing the Russian society, did not forget to make the people of other countries bow their heads to the United States. This kind of excessively obscene setting is really very problematic. Not only is it easy to make people sick within the real ideological scope, but it also obliterates the ending of the secret agent that should be vague.
In most of the previous episodes of "Red Sparrow", there is indeed a dwarfing of Russia, which of course made the basis for Lawrence's final choice of the United States, but as a Slav who grew up in Russia since she was a child, of course she has ethnicities. The sense of identity with the home country, these senses of identity can create contradictions in the comparison with the "freedom of the kingdom" of the United States, making the characters constantly change in the selection of American and Russian agents. Of course, this is Lawrence's professional ability as an agent, however As a psychological identity, she also has swings.
And "Red Sparrow" just put an end to this kind of swing, making the swing in the character's character a victim, fully serving the needs of ideology or the purpose of political propaganda.
It's not the film's bad, it's the film's disqualification.
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