The Rhythm Section

As this thriller opens we see a woman enter a building and point a pistol at an unsuspecting man... the action then jumps back eight months. The woman, Stephanie Patrick, is working as a prostitute in London. She is approached by a reporter who tells her that the death of her parents in a plane crash three years previously was no accident. It was brought down by a bomb and he knows who made it; that person is in London. She buys a gun, intending to kill the bomber but can't go through with it. When she returns to the report's flat she finds him dead. Her only lead is the reporter's ex-MI-6 contact. She tracks him down in the Highlands and he eventually agrees to train her... taking the identity of a dead assassin she starts to hunt those behind the bombing. It won't be easy though; unlike her targets she isn't a natural killer.

I thought this was a decent addition to the revenge thriller genre. The early scenes quickly introduce us to the character of Stephanie and her motives. The scenes of her training in Scotland are solid enough but do go on a bit longer than really necessary, slowing the film down somewhat. Once she has started going after her targets things improve markedly. There is plenty of tension and a feeling that she is in real danger. It helps that, far from being an unstoppable professional, she is a barely competent amateur who is merely good enough and gets lucky. Blake Lively does a really solid job as Stephanie and Jude Law is good as the man she goes to for help; the rest of the cast are fairly impressive too. The film looks great with plenty of interesting locations. Overall I'd not say this was a must see but I did enjoy it so would recommend it to fans of the genre.