Movie: The Rhythm Section

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Bargain Basement Assassin

Plot Overview

Having lost her loving family in a tragic plane crash threee years ago, Oxford scholar Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) has turned to heroin for comfort, and to prostitution for income. She gives her johns a false name (Lisa,) takes their money up front, plies her limited skills on them, and has her pimp deal with any problems. One day she receives a mysterious caller, a free lance journalist Keith Proctor who tells her the plane was bombed, and the bomb maker Mohammed Rezza is alive and well here on the streets of London. At Keith's flat Stephanie photographs his wall display of info.

After purchasing an illegal weapon she goes to Port­land College of Engineering, which Rezza is attending, and in a “cafeteria fiasco” manages to alert him that he's been made. This causes him to disappear and cut the only link security services had to some other one pulling the strings. Stephanie contacts Keith's source, former MI6 agent Ian Boyd (Jude Law,) and persuades him to use her for his dirty work. He does so reluctantly (“You're not made for this.”) After taking a crash spy course, she adopts a new name, finds a fellow victim to foot the expenses, plies her rather limited assassination skills on loose terrorists, and lets Ian watch her back. She has gone from being a cliché of drugs and prostitution to being a cliché of a vengeful victim.

Ideology

When Stephanie comes out of mourning enough to seek retribution, she discovers that the terrorists are to some extent living regular lives and with their own children now. It's akin to the terrorist assassin in Bill Clinton's thriller novel:

This is it. Her last job. Her last kill. And then she will be done, wealthy and free to raise her unborn daughter some­where far away from all of this. Her daughter will know love. She will know happiness. War and violence will be some­thing she reads about in books or hears about on the news. (300)

How can this be? (Job 21:7) “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?”

(Job 21:8) “Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their off­spring before their eyes.” The terrorists she calls on have their children right there with them.

(Job 21:9) “Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.” They live in fortified houses free from worry.

(Job 21:10) “Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.” They do business and attend college. If one of them suffers from a crippling disease, he has the technology to mitigate his condition.

(Job 21:11-12) “They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.” And their children are oh, so happy.

(Job 21:13) “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.” Of course, even their wealth can't prevent them from dying eventually.

(Job 21:14-15) “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the know­ledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” The thing about the mysterious puppet master—code name U17—is that he's no ideologue; he doesn't have some radical faith that drives him to murder the masses, not even a misguided one. He just does it for money and doesn't worry about the religious crap.

Production Values

“” (2020) was directed by Reed Morano. The screen­play was written by Mark Burnell, based on the first of his four novels in a Stephanie Patrick series. “The Rhythm Section” stars Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, and Raza Jaffrey. Leads Lively and Law acted well their parts. Brown and Jaffrey worked out okay, too, but it's Lively who carries the show.

MPAA rated it R for violence, sexual content, language through­out, and some drug use. It has a pseudo travelogue with stops in Tangier, England, Ireland, Madrid, New York, and Marseilles. The camera work borders on fidgety, and the musical inserts seem out of place. The sound effects along with the title evoke trying to get one's body under control. The fight scenes are kind of stupid.

Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation

I kept waiting for Stephanie's inner super hero to emerge until being disabused of that notion during the car chase scene when I realized I was not watching James Bond in a souped up muscle car but a woman driver in a beater. This one is not a bread & butter action movie, but rather the low priced spread. It looks like it was tailor made to spawn follow-ups, but if you're waiting for a mediocre sequel, look no further. You have arrived. It was fate that kept Stephanie off the plane with her doomed family, and it seems to be only kismet that allows her to survive her assignments. Go figure.

Movie Ratings

Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Chick flick all the way. See it with the girls. Suspense: Some few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.

Works Cited

Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

Clinton, Bill and James Patterson. The President is Missing. Copy­right © 2018 by James Patter­son and William Jefferson Clinton. New York: Little, Brown and Co.; Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. Print.

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