Rent The Rhythm Section on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Mark Burnell (based on the novel by, screenplay by)
Directed by: Reed Morano
Starring: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A woman seeks revenge against those who orchestrated a plane crash that killed her family.
Verdict
I like a realistic take on an assassin; this isn't a super hero character that one shots every foe. It's a great concept, but this movie wants me to care more than I do without setting up plot elements to build to those moments. It's inconsistent, leaving questions unanswered. The story progresses not by logic, but because the script demands it. Even the ending falls victim to the lack of narrative.
Skip it.
Review
This is in a similar sub-genre as the assassins movies Anna or Atomic Blonde but lacks the style and flair. The story alone isn't enough to carry the movie. If you're not after an assassin movie and just want a Blake Lively movie, I enjoyed The Shallows. All are more engaging than The Rhythm Section.
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| Blake Lively plays Stephanie. |
This is based on a book series that I haven't read, but going by book reviews the print edition must be better than the movie. Surprisingly the author also wrote this screenplay.
I don't like the title. We eventually get a indication as to how it ties in, but that seems incredibly forced as does the voice over in the beginning trying to make the link. Maybe the book did it better. This starts with the how we got here trope, which I rarely like. Then we go back to Stephanie (Blake Lively) living life as a drug addict sex worker. I get she lost her family in a plane crash, but how exactly does she end up here? That's not an answer we get. That's especially unfortunate when the movie plays up her escaping the brothel with a music queue. Would the brothel try to stop her? Was this supposed to be epic? I get she is devastated by losing her family, but this introduction is forced. I don't care about her yet, and as it turns out I never really do. We even get a line that she could have been top of her class at Oxford to play up the disparate realities.
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| Blake Lively and Jude Law play Stephanie and Iain Boyd. |
Stephanie finds a contact she was told "nobody can find." Apparently no one counted on her taking a photo of a picture wall with the GPS coordinates in plain site. Why couldn't the line bet something like 'you're not ready' or 'the contact won't talk to strangers.' The movie sets it up so that suspension of disbelief can't be maintained.I don't see why Jude Law's character wants to train her. A drug addict seems like too much trouble. What are the odds she'd become an assassin anyway? At one point she states she can't swim, then starts swimming. The movie is frequently inconsistent.
This seems like Lively just wanting to play against type. I like that the movie is scrappy and her hits don't go well, but the movie doesn't hit the beats. In her first hit she leaves trace evidence everywhere, but it doesn't seem to matter.
The ending should have had more impact, but as with everything else there's no build up, no foundation that would make it mean something.
This movie had the worst opening weekend ever for any movie playing in at least three-thousand theaters. Granted, it released January 27, 2020, but theaters didn't shut down until March.
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