The Rhythm Section

Based on a book by Mark Burnell, The Rhythm Section follows Blake Lively’s Stephanie Patrick as she sets out to avenge the deaths of her parents and siblings in the wake of a terrorist bombing aboard a commercial airliner. Filmmaker Reed Morano kicks The Rhythm Section off with an underwhelming, uninvolving opening stretch that certainly doesn’t inspire much confidence, with the off-putting atmosphere compounded by an almost shocking lack of context or character development. Morano’s reliance on pervasive grittiness undoubtedly plays a substantial role in triggering the movie’s immediate downfall, as there’s simply never a point at which the viewer is even partially drawn into the central character’s perilous exploits (ie Stephanie remains a one-dimensional figure who is unable to engender the slightest bit of one’s sympathy or interest). Lively’s inert, hopelessly non-charismatic performance doesn’t help alleviate the terminally interminable atmosphere, certainly, nor does Morano’s head-scratching refusal to deliver a single compelling or intriguing set piece. (There’s a decent mid-movie car chase that stands as the sole exception to this, ultimately.) The punishingly flabby narrative paves the way for an aggressively lackluster finale that’s as pointless as it is tedious, which undoubtedly does confirm The Rhythm Section’s place as a gross misfire of fairly epic proportions.

1/2* out of ****