The new decade starts Female-Strong at the movies. In the wake of successful female-led action films like Wonder Woman (2017), Atomic Blonde (2017), and Captain Marvel (2019) Hollywood has 'woke' up a little. So to begin this year, Tinsel Town is hoping to capitalize on this feminine trend with a parade of major Female-Strong theatrical releases. A new female-led actioner premiering each and every month for the first half of 2020 with THE RHYTHM SECTION leading the women's march with a vengeance, the vengeance of a woman's wrath. Close on THE RHYTHM SECTION's heels, BIRDS OF PREY opens the following week on February 7th. And in March 27, one of the year’s most eagerly-anticipated movies for Kung Fu fans, Disney's live-action retake on MULAN. Then on April 17th, there's another woman's wrath revenge film with PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN which just wowed Sundance, followed by some beloved superheroines, BLACK WIDOW on May 1st and WONDER WOMAN 1984 on June 5.

THE RHYTHM SECTION is based on a series of spy thrillers by Mark Burnell. The first book, The Rhythm Section, was originally published in 1999 and it launched the femme fatale assassin Stephanie Patrick for three sequels including Chameleon (2001), Gemini (2003) and The Third Woman (2005). Boding well for the film, Burnell also wrote the screenplay and is an executive producer.

Beyond Burnell, the other key filmmakers for THE RHYTHM SECTION are women. Stepping into the director's chair is Reed Morano. Morano is recognized for her critically-acclaimed directorial work on the Female-strong dystopian series THE HANDMAID'S TALE (2017), based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood. The series has received numerous awards and is entering its fourth season on Hulu, set to debut sometime this summer.

THE RHYTHM SECTION is produced by Barbara Broccoli, the woman behind the James Bond franchise since 1987. In a recent interview with the Variety regarding rumors of a female Bond to replace Daniel Craig. Daniel vacates the iconic role following his upcoming final appearance in NO TIME TO DIE (opening April 10th), and the film adds a new 00, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Ignorant netizens mistook Lashana as the new Bond, not another 00 (there have been many 00s over the course of Bond's 27 film history). In reaction, Broccoli said “I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.” There was early speculation that Broccoli's investment in THE RHYTHM SECTION is an attempt to create a female superspy akin to Bond. However, that's not really fair. While the Bond connection is prominently advertised in the trailers, Stephanie Patrick is her own woman, not to be confused with Bond despite the inevitable comparisons, including some in this review.  

Nevertheless, THE RHYTHM SECTION filmmakers are clearly hoping to launch a new female spy franchise so a lot hinges on the actress playing Stephanie Patrick. Can Blake Lively sell the action? Around when production began, Blake also was cast to play the lead in another actioner titled BRUISED. BRUISED is about a disgraced MMA fighter named Jackie ‘Justice’. When the son she abandoned reappears in her life, she is forced to return to the cage for redemption. The project was announced at Cannes in 2017 and originally had Nick Cassavetes directing. However, Blake left that film for reasons unknown, and BRUISED lay stagnant until the following year. In September 2018, Halle Berry took over as both star and director. It is Halle’s directorial debut.  

While filming THE RHYTHM SECTION in Dublin, Blake injured her hand doing a stunt. It required two surgeries and shut down production indefinitely with less than half the film had been shot. THE RHYTHM SECTION was originally scheduled to be released in February 2019, but after the accident, it was postponed to November. The hiatus lasted for six months while Blake recovered and it was postponed once more to open on Superbowl weekend. Coincidentally, Halle was also injured on the set while shooting a fight scene for BRUISED last November. Perhaps Halle was too ambitious after her stunt- and fight-saturated performance in JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM. Halle said later that the part was written ‘for a 21-year-old white girl’ and that she was ‘nowhere near 21’. For the record, Halle is 53 and Blake is 32.

 

Your Heart is the Drum

The journey of any warrior is to find their own inner strength – to find their power. In classic Kung Fu films like THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN (1978), it’s a poor oppressed rebel who must find his power through Shaolin training so he might take revenge against regal warmongers. For women warriors, there’s an added dimension. Not only must they find their power to face their transgressors, they come from a culture of subjugation where they’ve been labelled as the weaker sex. They must transcend the world of men.  Stephanie Patrick starts in a very bad place - the worst in fact. Her whole family was killed in a plane crash and in her grief, she's fallen into drugs and prostitution. It's an unflattering role for the usually glamourous Blake. She's shot in stark blanching light, scratched and bruised, and constantly on the verge of crying. Then she learns that the plane crash wasn't an accident, puting her on the path of revenge. Through astonishing circumstances, she tracks down B (Jude Law), a former agent who trains her in the fine art of assassination.

The story is faintly reminiscent of HANNIE CAULDER (1971) although instead of being a Western, it's a modern-day spy thriller. Hannie's (Rachel Welch) family is killed and she finds bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) who trains her to be a gunslinger and exact revenge. Of course, this is also the plot of countless Kung Fu movies too, the main distinction being that those vengeance seekers were usually male and studied martial arts. Patrick's combat training isn't as esoteric. She doesn't work her way the the hallowed chambers of Shaolin Temple like San Te, nor does she practice rolling a bar with a cord-attached rock to strengthen her wrists like Hannie. After B gets her clean, he spends most of his time conditioning Patrick with road work. To teach her to fight, he just beats her up. But she gets her moments of payback, a dramatic device to show she's got that special spunk that every international assassin needs to survive. The action sequences are sloppy, gritty, and realistic, not the sort of balletic grace and precision shown in many fight scenes lately. Patrick's fights are choreographed to show her inexperience. She hesitates, miscalculates, and pays the price, often surviving by dumb luck instead of skill. Olivier Schneider is the Stunt Coordinator credited with overseeing the fight choreography. The car chase scenes are particularly engaging, shot with the frantic chaos that feels more authentic than most.

Patrick's clumsiness with her first contracts is faintly reminiscent of Bond's first kill in CASINO ROYALE (2006) when Daniel Craig first took over as 007. The other major similarity to the Bond franchise is the global scale of the film. Like Bond, Patrick moves effortlessly from country to country, Tangiers, Scotland, Madrid, New York, and so on. By strange coincidence, I have a personal connection to THE RHYTHM SECTION. In 2017, I was in Dublin covering INTO THE BADLANDS and just happened to stumble on this movie being filmed at a building facing St. Stephen’s Green, very close to where I was staying. I’ve kept a tab on the film’s progress ever since.  Almost immediately after I returned from Dublin, Blake injured her hand and I swear I had nothing to do with that. I did crawl the Dublin pubs in hopes of casually bumping into Blake, but she takes on some very different looks in this film, disguises that might fit an assassin...like a chameleon. 

 

Your Breathing is the Bass

Even with the glaring #metoo spotlight, there's no guarantee that a female-driven movie will draw an audience. In 2018, the TOMB RAIDER reboot barely managed to break even and last year's DARK PHOENIX and CHARLIE'S ANGELS reboot were total flops.  

Like TOMB RAIDER and CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE RHYTHM SECTION is a creation story, an attempt to launch a new franchise for Stephanie Patrick. However creation tales can make for tenuous plot devices because the full power of the character isn't revealed until the very end of the film. It's the anticipated sequel where the character is fully developed and really ready for action. In CASINO ROYALE, it's that final scene where the Bond theme plays that seals the deal.  In TOMB RAIDER, Lara gets her guns in that final scene.  In CHARLIE'S ANGELS, the potential magnitude of the Townsend Agency is revealed.  Likewise in THE RHYTHM SECTION (not to drop a spoiler), the final scene reveals the Patrick as a fully actualized and very promising assassin.  Blake delivers a solid performance as Patrick throughout the film. She carries the role well, however there are some convoluted plot devices and awkward moments of continuity that could lose the audience. The logic leaps in Patrick's progress might be too big to surmount. Can a junkie whore rise up to become an international assassin in a few months? What's more, January isn't the best month for Hollywood. All eyes are on the Academy Award nominees, leaving other film premieres in the shadows.  And then there's that Superbowl (GO NINERS!) If THE RHYTHM SECTION can rise up and capture the box office, then Chameleon is the movie we'll really want to see. 

THE RHYTHM SECTION opens nationwide on January 31, 2020.