To promote the new movie the company behind THE RHYTHM
SECTION constantly make note that it comes from the producers of the James Bond
films. The fact that there is plenty of violence in the film as well as ties to
MI6 shouldn’t mislead folks into thinking this is a high tech spy film though.
In fact it’s more of a revenge film.
Stephanie Patrick
(Blake Lively) is a young woman whose family is killed in a plane explosion as
it is flying out of London. Three years later she’s still living there working
as a prostitute and strung out on drugs. One days she is approached by Keith
Proctor (Raza Jeffrey), a journalist investigating the crash who informs her it
wasn’t an accident but a bombing planned by terrorists.
At first not believing him she eventually finds him and
visits him, seeing all of the information he has gathered thus far. The man
behind the bombing was named Reza, now living as a student in London and left
alone by the government as well as MI6. It seems they feel he is more valuable
to them as a source to track down those responsible rather than taking him down.
Pawning off what she can Stephanie buys more drugs and a gun
with the intention of killing Reza. When she confronts him in a diner she can’t
bring herself to follow through. She heads to Proctor’s apartment to let him
know what happened only to find him dead. With a small lead as to his main
source, she sets out to find the man with the information to help her plot
Reza’s death.
Heading to a remote location in Scotland she finds “B”, Iain
Boyd (Jude Law), an ex-MI6 agent who was Proctor’s source for information. B
informs her that it was her ineptitude that led to the death of Proctor. He
also lets her know that the man behind it all is the elusive radical terrorists
known only as U-17. Begging him to help her, to train her, letting him know
that her life is now meaningless, he reluctantly agrees and the training
begins.
It’s difficult and at first he isn’t sure if she’ll make it
or not. Through sheer determination she does and the plan begins to take form.
B tells her that the body of a professional assassin he killed, Petra Reuter,
is still missing and they plan on her taking Petra’s place. Using her as a pawn
in the game of cat and mouse with the terrorists puts her life in jeopardy but
she’s determined to avenge the death of her family.
Boyd puts her in touch with Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown),
an ex-CIA agent and information broker, to gain information that will lead her
to U-17. Unable and unwilling to fund her search, she approaches the father of
liberal Muslim reformer Abdul Kaif. Kaif was the target of the bombing with
everyone else considered collateral damage. He refuses but when his wife
overhears, she agrees to fund her mission. In return Stephanie/Petra gives her
her wedding ring to hold as collateral.
With funding in place she returns to talk to Serra to gain
information and begins tracking down the various members of the terrorists’
organization behind the bombing. With each person killed she comes closer to
finding the identity of U-17 as well as losing herself in the murders she
commits. Along the way she gets help from Boyd when she fails to follow
through.
But as is often the case things are not always what they
seem. As the bodies begin to pile up Stephanie learns move about everyone from
Boyd to Reza to Serra to U-17. The puzzle unravels slowly and the eventual
outcome is not as predictable as you would expect.
As I said don’t go in expecting this to be a Bond film. Yes,
there are car chases. Yes, there are explosions. Yes, there is gunplay and
people die. But that’s about it. With the exception of taking a novice off the
street and turning her into a killing machine this film is more based in the
real world, one where the leader of a terrorist group is more likely to hide
his identity than announce it.
Lively does a fantastic job here and it’s a surprise that
she isn’t getting more high profile acting assignments. She does a believable
job here changing not just in attitude but in look as well. Law does a fine job
too in the role of mentor.
The movie’s only fault lies in the pacing. The first 30
minutes are grueling and take forever to get through. I understand it’s setting
things up but it could move faster. The rest of the movie doesn’t pick up the
pace much more but at least it includes a few action scenes. On the whole the
movie is entertaining but look for a story with more depth than you’d expect
and you’ll get more from it.
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