Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
When she discovers the plane crash that claimed the lives of her family was no accident, Stephanie Patrick enters the dark, complex world of international espionage seeking vengeance. With nothing left to lose, Stephanie transforms from victim to assassin and discovers that neither revenge nor the truth are what they appear.
The Rhythm Section follows a well-worn revenge-thriller template without meaningfully subverting it. Blake Lively gives a committed, physically demanding performance that elevates the material, but the supporting cast is underutilized. The handheld, desaturated visual style is competent but unremarkable for the genre. The narrative is derivative of similar spy-revenge fare and struggles with pacing, while the ending feels anticlimactic and tonally muddled rather than satisfying. Novelty is low given how closely it hews to genre conventions without a distinctive voice.