THE RHYTHM SECTION

Beautiful, Blake Lively actually pulls off the implausible; not to be confused or compared with “Lisbeth Salander” or “Evelyn Salt” she is credible as a vengeful assassin seeking justice for those doomed in an airplane bombing, including her entire family; “revenge served cold” with scalding temerity.

Director Reed Morano’s (trained cinematographer), pulverizing concentration on “Stephanie Patrick’s” (Lively) emotional and physical decay: prostitution, drugs and alcohol, mirrored in her neglected, battered body, echoing her internal martyrdom. Enter “B” (Jude Law, with minimal substance, rallies to the role), training Stephanie to passable “Marvel” majesty; their honing scenes bordering on egregious, but necessary barbarism.

With the appropriate villains (radical Islamic terrorists) and outstanding cinematography, Stephanie, under a pseudonym, and with the guidance of “Mark Serra” (Sterling K. Brown) an information broker, gruesomely engineers and executes her quest.

Stephanie, finds her dimensionless “rhythm”, leaving viewers, wondering if it merited the sweat, injuries (suffered a broken wrist) and crushing efforts?

TWO & ½ STARS!!

Peneflix