The Rhythm Section 2020 * * * Stars

Director: Reed Morano
Year: 2020
Rated R
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown

"Think of your heart as the drums, your breathing as the bass". That's a quote from 2020's The Rhythm Section. Get it? "Rhythm" trades instruments for knives and guns with hollow point rounds. The "tempo" demonstrated here is mostly palatable.

Anyway, The Rhythm Section is vastly underrated and kinda overrated at the same time. Many a spy/revenge thriller have come before it. Oh well. "Rhythm" has sloppy yet effective action scenes that come in fits and starts. The dialogue that emerges from the actors mouths is confidently pithy and that's a good thing.

Sadly slotted into a January release and directed by a lady who has mostly been a cinematographer (Reed Morano), The Rhythm Section is about a woman who seeks vengeance for some terrorists who killed her parents in a past plane crash. Blake Lively plays said woman (Stephanie Patrick) and Jude Law (Iain Boyd) plays the ex-M16 agent who trains her to be an executive killer.

Law and Lively give solid performances that heighten the almost a la mode material. Law channels his inner badass while Lively digs deep into character with nerve endings manifested. Normally elegant-looking and bright-eyed, Blake Lively appears a little weathered in "Rhythm". I'm not kidding. Her persona was once a drug addict and a prostitute so the phrase, "you look just like I feel" gets a whole new meaning.

Reflecting on The Rhythm Section, I was reminded of a more ratty Bourne Identity coupled with a modern-day version of 2005's Munich. In truth, "Rhythm" is a slow burn, globetrotter of a film with the occasional burst of extremity and a raw, in-your-face car chase that needs to be seen to be believed. Bottom line: This "rhythm ain't gonna totally get you" but there are much worse ways to spend over a hundred minutes. Rating: 3 stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson