Movie review: Jennifer Lawrence, strong cast can't save cat-and-mouse tactics of 'Red Sparrow'

Simultaneously effective and uninspired, "Red Sparrow" is successful in fits and starts. A perfectly serviceable spy thriller, it inevitably leaves behind the feeling that a better film was possible than the one that made it to the screen.

Certainly, all signs were promising, starting with the strongly reviewed Edgar-winning 2013 novel by Jason Matthews, a 33-year CIA veteran who, the book's publicity somberly noted, "engaged in a clandestine collection of national security intelligence, specializing in denied-area operations." Hard to argue with that.