The Rhythm Section, a thriller starring Blake Lively

The Rhythm Section is a revenge thriller with Blake Lively as a newbie assassin. It was directed by Reed Morano. See it on Prime Video.

When The Rhythm Section begins we learn the motivation for Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively). Her family is killed by a bomb on a plane. Motivation covers most of the character development in this action movie.

After the bombing, Stephanie goes into a grief spiral. She uses drugs and turns tricks. She’s approached by a journalist, Keith Proctor (Raza Jaffrey). Proctor tells her he’s working on the bombing story and has leads.

Proctor shows Stephanie his apartment, which is full of information about the passengers on the plane, the bomb, the possible bombers. He tells her a few names. She takes that tiny bit of information and does the first of many stupid things in her quest for revenge.

I love the name Stephanie for the protagonist. I’m a big fan of the Stephanie Plum series of novels by Janet Evanovich. That character is a bond enforcement officer and totally incompetent at her job.

Stephanie Patrick is totally incompetent as an assassin. Since the film is based on the first in a series of Stephanie Patrick novels, I assume she gets better at it. It tickles me no end that both these Stephanies are so bad at what they do, but they do it anyway and somehow come out okay.

After her first botched attempt at revenge, Stephanie goes to Scotland, following some GPS coordinates from Proctor’s apartment.

She finds Iain Boyd (Jude Law). He’s living off the grid and wants nothing to do with her. But he knows things about terrorists, the bombing, the CIA, MI6, etc., etc., etc.

She stays there for 8 months and he reluctantly trains her. Eventually he gives her a field assignment.

As Stephanie Patrick, Blake Lively dresses in loose male clothing. She walks with a bumpy hitch in her step. She is not going to attract any stares on the street from leering men.

Maybe that’s why she gets into people’s houses so easily. That’s her one good assassin skill. Killing people (at least on purpose) is her very bad assassin skill.

Each time she does some undercover assassin job for Boyd, they come closer to finding the people responsible for the bombing. He sends her to Madrid, to meet Mark Serra (Sterling K. Brown), a man who has knowledge of many intelligence goings-on in the world.

The film’s climactic action scenes happen in Madrid. There’s a spectacular car chase, and an explosion. Stephanie finally manages to kill someone on purpose.

Her revenge is complete when the film ends. But this character has more story in further books. I like Blake Lively and I enjoyed this movie. I’d watch more films about Stephanie Patrick.

The Rhythm Section was excitingly directed by Reed Morano. The script was written by novelist Mark Burnell based on his book. The plot was full of improbable twists and illogical turns. Character development was nonexistent. Don’t expect it to be movie of the year, but it boasts good stars and plenty of action.

Check out the trailer.

Have you seen this one yet? What did you think of it?