Red Sparrow: Not Quite Ready For Prime Time!

This film is based on the spy-thriller novel of the same name by Jason Matthews.  The book, apparently, is much better than the movie (but what else is new?)  The last 30 minutes are exciting and transform it into a solid rental, but the first 1 hour 45 minutes are way too slow and boring for me. Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a prima ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet.  Her elite status entitles her to live in a nice apartment with her ill mother.  Without state financial support, their situation would be dire.  Dominika's father is deceased, so there is no other source of income, but her ill mother's considerable medical expenses are also paid for by "The State."  While dancing a duet, Dominika and her partner fall, which results in a career-ending injury for her.  This injury also ends the State financial support for herself and her mother. Her father's brother, Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a high-ranking secret service officer.  He asks Dominika to help him with a mission.  In return, the State will continue their financial support.  This mission leads to an unfortunate sequence of events (wild horses won't drag this out of me), resulting in Dominika going to "Sparrow School," where pretty Russian women learn how to be a spy – with emphasis on seducing men in order to obtain information.  Essentially, they are trained to become "whores with a purpose." The film devotes considerable time to "flesh-out" Dominika's experience at the "soul-killing" Sparrow School, which was probably more interesting in the book.  Eventually, Dominika is given the mission to discover the identity of a mole in the Russian secret service.  This mole is believed to be handled by an American, Nathaniel Nash (Joel Edgerton).  Dominika's mission is to seduce Nathaniel and learn the identity of the mole.  Of course, things don't go according to plan. Lawrence and the other actors do a fine job.  There's considerable suspense in the last half hour, but it wasn't enough to save it, at least for me.  It's a solid rental, but – unless you are a Jennifer Lawrence fan or love spy-thriller movies – I wouldn't bother to see it on the BS. In conclusion, "Red Sparrow" isn't going to "worm" its way into my heart to earn a better rating!  It's a 7.0 and I'm stickin' to it! Wait!  There's a knock at my door... It's Jennifer!  Due to the "huge" influence my blog has on box office sales, she's begging me to rate the movie higher.  Perhaps I'll reconsider.