Heart of Stone

Directed by Tom Harper, Heart of Stone follows an elite intelligence officer (Gal Gadot’s Rachel Stone) as she and her team race to prevent a hacker from stealing a world-changing weapon. Filmmaker Harper, armed with Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder’s screenplay, kicks the proceedings off with a fair degree of promise, as Heart of Stone kicks off with a tense and engaging opening stretch that seems to promise a generic yet watchable spy thriller – with the better-than-expected vibe persisting right up until the first action sequence rolls around (ie it’s as dimly lit and suffused with laughable CGI as one might’ve feared). From there, Heart to Stone progresses into a meandering, padded-out midsection that’s compounded by Harper’s staggeringly bland approach to the material – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by George Steel’s chintzy, flat cinematography and a truly grating supporting turn by Alia Bhatt. By the time the predictably overblown and entirely unconvincing climax rolls around, Heart of Stone has cemented its place as a forgettable vehicle for Gadot that squanders its relatively promising setup and periphery performances. (Jamie Dornan’s scene-stealing work, in terms of the former, remains a rare highlight within the proceedings, ultimately.)

** out of ****