The Rhythm Section

The action genre has many familiar plot tropes that are overused throughout the decades. If there was one that felt like it had a risen even more during the 2000s and 2010s, it would be the standard revenge hunt flick: losing a loved one to an antagonist force whether intentional or part of a crossfire would lead the protagonist to seek training to become a hardened killer. There are a number of factors that can make the viewing experience either a run thrill ride or a lackluster snooze fest that you would have as background noise in tv reruns. This brings us to a new entry in that area, The Rhythm Section, which is based on the novel by Mark Burnell of the same name (who is also the writer for this adaptation). The marketing campaign for this film, however, felt very stock when looking at it and a hint of potential problems revealed itself with its January theatrical release date. That month is normally associated with being a graveyard dumping ground for throwaway mediocre films (such as Dolittle) that studios have little confidence in (though there are exceptions to this such as Bad Boys for Life). With the lack of talk surrounding this project upon its release and its financial failure as a box office bomb losing Paramount $30-40 million dollars, my curiosity rose to see what happened. I watched it on Amazon as a rental and after finishing it, I can confirm the January movie curse is real with how bland the feature ended up being. 

What's it about? Taking place 3 years after her family's death in a terrorist plane bombing, the story follows a drug addict sex worker who trains in order to seek revenge on the murderers. On paper, the seeking vengeance isn't anything new but everything else as a concept could be interesting. There are moments where it shows her hesitance in taking initiative results in unnecessary deaths, which is attempting to show some vulnerability in her. 

However, whatever potential it had to landing an impact or being entertaining falters hard in a number of areas. The pacing is all over the place where is rushes through a training montage of showing an addict getting themselves cleaned from their vice during what feels like a week (or some short period of time). The filmmakers try too hard to make the audience empathize with the protagonist by having her staring sadly while having badly filmed flashbacks to happy smiling family members that feels like a phoned in Hallmark commercial. The antagonists themselves aren't anything interesting and are just stock villains. The bonds she "forms" don't feel are lacking chemistry (especially a rushed through type of relationship that barely establishes some sexual or romantic one as it's just shown with them making out). The editing in the storytelling is terrible for how it presented all of this.   

 

How's the action? When the gloomy nature isn't boring viewers, there are a few pretty good fights and a cool car chase sequence. The hand to hand fights themselves are fairly brief with doing what they need to do and not overstaying the welcome. The choreography doesn't reach for anything energetic like Atomic Blonde (the female equivalent to John Wick) but it's adjust for the actors involved. The big highlight is a car chase is where the energy livens up for 2 minutes of danger that feels real for the environment that appears to have been filmed in 1 long take. If everything else surrounding them had this kind of energy and care, it would have been a much better product.

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actor to focus is Blake Lively. Blake struggles as anyone would with a stock script that doesn't allow her role any natural growth as well as taking on a British accent that sounds like she's mumbling her lines. It's not her worst performance given the circumstances but it's certainly a setback for her. Dishonorable mentions Jude Law and Sterling K Brown with the former feeling like he's phoning it in even more than he did in Captain Marvel (2018) while the latter is being wasted in a role that doesn't use his talents appropriately. 

Overall Consensus: The Rhythm Section suffers as bland stock feature due to directionless performances, terrible storytelling editing, and lack of personality, despite having some nice action highlights. ⭑⭑ Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes R

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or Reed Morano. (I would say if interested in the car chase scene but it's easy to find on YouTube). You have read the novel and want to see how it's treated.

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or Reed Morano. You have read the novel but don't want to see how it's treated. You dislike revenge stories that lack interesting characters, engaging plot, or stakes that you can care about. You don't want to hear someone mumble through a British accent attempt.