After years of a steady stream of outstanding work as a cinematographer, the incredibly talented Reed Morano made the jump to directing. After some stellar work launching The Handmaid’s Tale and directing the underrated Peter Dinklage vehicle I Think We’re Alone Now, Morano made a jump to the majors with The Rhythm Section. Armed with a hefty budget and backed by the production company of the James Bond films, the film was on track to be a huge next step in her career. Unfortunately, on-set injuries and production delays followed by a disastrous box office run has tainted this film that does not deserve such a fate.
The Rhythm Section is centered on Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively), who has descended down a dark path of drugs and prostitution following the death of her family in a plane crash. One night, she is approached at her brothel by a journalist (Raza Jaffrey) who claims that the plane crash was no accident. Stephanie is skeptical at first, but she is ready to enact vengeance once presented with evidence of a terrorism-motivated attack. After a botched assassination attempt, Stephanie follows a lead to Scotland where she comes across Ian Boyd (Jude Law), an ex-MI6 agent who reluctantly trains her to be a more effective agent of destruction. It is this transformation and subsequent vengeance-seeking missions that drive the movie forward.
While there have been a lot of movies where seemingly normal people go through a training montage and end up the perfect killing machine, The Rhythm Section sets itself apart by being more grounded in reality. Boyd gives Stephanie intense training in hand-to-hand combat and handling weapons, but she never becomes unrealistically skilled in any of these areas. Make no mistake, she develops skills that can get the job done, but she just as often bungles her mission in some way or gets caught up in her morality. Stephanie is achingly human, which is delicately portrayed by Blake Lively in an impressive performance. The rest of the supporting cast also turn in solid performances all around, including the always-dependable Sterling K. Brown as a morally questionable ex-CIA agent.
For all the reasons that The Rhythm Section failed financially, it was not due to the direction of the movie. Reed Morano shoots some truly visceral action sequences that are perfectly paced throughout the movie as it builds towards an explosive finale. Everything concerning the movie is technically proficient, from production design to editing to the score. Most importantly, though, the movie is a lot of fun! There are a lot of exciting twists and turns to go alongside some moving emotional moments and intense action set pieces. Do not let the reputation keep you away; this is a good spy-revenge movie that should be given a chance.
Video Quality
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment brings The Rhythm Section to Blu-Ray with an excellent looking 1080p presentation. There was virtually no chance this was ever going to receive a 4K UHD release, but thankfully the Blu-Ray disc has a tremendous amount of clarity and pretty solid handling of black levels. This movie has very cool color palette with the edges of the frame often lacking focus to mirror the mindset of Stephanie. This is not going to be a disc to show off all the colors of your 4K television, but it perfectly replicates how the film looked in theaters. There is a good amount of depth to the image and there is no blurring to mention in any of the fast paced panning that is prevalent in the car chase sequences.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray discs comes with a powerful Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track that really ratchets up the excitement in the film. Dialogue is clear throughout and balanced well with the score and sound effects from the action oriented scenes. The track makes good use of the surround speakers and provides an accurate presentation of the onscreen activity. The subwoofer gets some good moments to shine with a multitude of crashes, punches and explosions filling the room.
Special Features
- Deleted & Extended Scenes: Over 17 minutes of unused footage is provided here comprised of two extended scenes and four entirely new scenes. These scenes focus more on Stephanie’s time as a prostitute and training with Boyd. They are worth watching, but it makes sense that they were cut for pacing reasons.
- Stephanie’s Journey: A nearly 8 minute video where the director and cast discuss Stephanie’s motivations and frame of mind throughout the movie.
- Fight or Flight: A 6 minute analysis of some intense fight sequences by the cast and crew.
- Never Leave Second Gear: A 6 minute breakdown of how the car chases were filmed.
- One Shot Explosion: A 2 minute dissection of how the cast and crew pulled off the climactic explosion of the movie.
- Designing The Rhythm Section: A nearly 3 minute conversation with the production designer about what went into dressing the various locations.
Final Thoughts
The Rhythm Section has been unfairly maligned since the day it hit theaters, and that perception needs to be changed. This is a very solid action thriller that is wonderfully directed by Reed Morano. With this excellent looking and sounding Blu-Ray release from Paramount Home Entertainment that is pretty stacked with extras, you should give the movie a fair shake if you have not yet. Highly Recommended
The Rhythm Section will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray on April 28, 2020.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
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Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
