Dwight's Rating
1.5/5

  • Characters

    The cast was great. Blake Lively's character showed progression from start to finish. All of the supporting characters really popped. I especially liked Jude Law's character.

  • Reviewer's Curve

    Not many things could save this movie. It felt like a watered down prequel to Charlize Theron's Atomic Blonde. The Rhythm Section would have been better going to Netflix instead of the big screen.

  • Plot

    A lot of lucky moments really drives this entire movie. You barely get the main character's backstory but you do get confusing moments of dialogue and visuals.

  • Pacing

    This movie dragged! Nothing really happens for most of the movie since it kept on flashing back to the same scenes.

The camera work felt a bit weird close to the middle of the movie. There are 2 distinct moments where it really made me cringe. The first being her swimming and the second being her driving away from the bad guys. They should have did something better with it. 

Sterling’s character wasn’t thought through properly. Him being the mastermind really didn’t bring anything special to the movie. He didn’t prove to be an obstacle for her. She had more friction with Jude’s character. They really needed to increase his meddling or anything so he becomes an annoyance. 

A lot of the best parts of the movie happened in the trailer. This is a constant thing happening in Hollywood these days. You spend a lot of time marketing the movie but you give away a ton of the great parts.

Dwight's Hypothetical Corner

Let's say I change one thing. Maybe that one thing will make the Rhythm Section better or more watchable.

  • Get rid of the multiple flashbacks and just keep 3 of them. Start the movie off with Blake Lively’s character in the middle of a mission and something makes her think of her family. (Flashback #1) 
  • Continue the mission and see her narrowly succeed. She suspects Sterling’s character to be the mastermind. She begins to gain evidence when a setback happens. (Flashback #2)
  • Final fight happens with Sterling’s character and close to her losing she drifts off. (Flashback #3)
  • Continue with the pen prick as a final attack and finish the Rhythm Section.

Bring in more action and include Jude Law as advertised. He shouldn’t play as a background player. He needed more screen time to play off of Blake’s character. The sprinkle of him really hurt the movie. Sending her in alone after maybe a year at most of training was a careless move.