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FILM REVIEW: ‘The Rhythm Section’ a glum rendition of off-key notes

Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) was one of the top students at Oxford University before her family (mom, dad, brother, sister) boarded a plane to go on vacation and were instead killed in a crash reportedly caused by mechanical failure.
FilmReview (1)
Blake Lively and Jude Law star in The Rhythm Section. Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) was one of the top students at Oxford University before her family (mom, dad, brother, sister) boarded a plane to go on vacation and were instead killed in a crash reportedly caused by mechanical failure.

Three years after the disaster, Stephanie is a heroin-addicted prostitute in a London brothel when a client walks in, pays her to talk, and reveals he’s a journalist with proof the plane went down because of an onboard bomb – an act of terrorism.

This revelation shakes Stephanie awake for the first time since her loss and she grows convinced she can hunt down the terrorist and kill him.

Vengeance, she believes, will bring some sort of peace to her life. The obstacles to this plan are the aforementioned heroin addiction, the fact she’s a prostitute and not a super-spy, and she has no money or skills of any kind required for such a venture.

But Stephanie doesn’t let that get in her way. She finds the journalist’s source, a rogue MI-6 agent (played by Jude Law) and convinces him to train her in the ways of a super-spy assassin. Then, with the help of a rogue CIA agent - are you noticing a pattern? - played by This is Us actor Sterling K. Brown, she’s off to track down her man and put an end to the hellish pain she’s living in.

The Rhythm Section is directed by the Emmy award-winning director of The Handmaid’s Tale, Reed Morano, who is known for infusing dark and violent stories with energy and spark. But his skills fall flat in this grim, plodding and predictable (alleged) thriller.

Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown are award-winning actors who deliver their least interesting performances in years, and Blake Lively (who has a somewhat chequered resume but at least a few solid performances) turns in one so grim, surly and without a hint of anything but misery, that you find yourself wanting to shout at her, “I know your whole family just died in a plane crash and you’re a drug-addicted prostitute but SURELY it can’t be THAT bad!”

Add to that a make-under that I assume was supposed to do for her what Monster did for Charlize Theron. That is, take a preternaturally beautiful woman and make her ordinary, thus making us able to see past her beauty to notice for the first time she can really act!

Instead, we find her donning a somewhere comical series of wigs, each one more terrible than the last, with a British accent she only remembers to use in about 30% of her dialogue, and you’re left counting down the minutes until you can be free from the glum and off-beat drum of this poorly instrumented rhythm section.

Vicky Sparks is a Bright’s Grove native and movie critic for Global TV’s The Morning Show, which airs nationally on Fridays. Journal Reviews cover movies playing at Galaxy Cinemas Sarnia


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