‘BALLERINA’ Review: A Lifeless Lady Vengeance

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

BALLERINA

Rated R, 2 hours and 5 minutes

Directed by: Len Wiseman

Starring: Ana de Armas, Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Lance Reddick, Ava Mccarthy

BALLERINA isn’t the first JOHN WICK spinoff. That would be THE CONTINENTAL streaming series on Peacock. It’s not even the first contemporary movie to introduce us to a pirouetting assassin. That would be RED SPARROW. And it’s not even the first fight-choreography-heavy actioner that holds the title BALLERINA. That would be Chung-Hyun Lee’s BALLERINA on Netflix. Yet for all this unoriginality, director Len Wiseman’s female-led feature centered on a deviant danseuse in the Wickian Cinematic Universe holds some small pleasures. The story is a laughable bore without the thematic depth and emotional resonance the JOHN WICK films all contain. However, as a surprise to no one, the action primarily keeps these proceedings afloat. Still, it’s empty calorie violence. 

When Eve is young (Victoria Comte), she sees her dad killed at the hands of a rogue criminal faction during his futile attempt to flee, one that presumably gets her mother and older sister killed. Because her father was part of the Ruska Roma family, the newly orphaned girl is quickly scooped up by Continental Hotel Manager Winston (Ian McShane) and shuttled through the doors of the Director’s (Anjelica Huston) office for assessment. Eve is to study the arts of ballet and battle under the intense tutelage of silver-statement-jewelry-clad teacher Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).

Fast forward 12 years and Eve (Ana de Armas) is excelling in her mercenary missions, earning her iconic angel-on-a-cross back tattoo and graduating from the school. While out on a gig mere months later, she comes across men with the same X wrist brandings as those who exterminated her family. The Director instructs Eve to leave them alone, as they are members of a lawless cult run by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) and there’s a long-standing truce between their two organizations. Naturally, Eve doesn’t obey her boss’ orders, which puts her on a collision course with revelations about her family’s past, all while she tries to protect another father and daughter – Daniel (Norman Reedus) and Ella (Ava Mccarthy) – from suffering her same fate.

Surprisingly, BALLERINA is guilty of what the JOHN WICK films are often accused of doing, but actually don’t: embrace violence for violence’s sake. It’s also dull since there’s little to no internality expressed by the heroine driving the action. She’s a hollowed out homage to a better hero. WICK’s films are about the unfolding consequences our titular hero unwittingly unleashes after someone killed his puppy (a metaphor for the last vestige of hope the widower clings to in a bleak world). World building innovatively expands in each chapter and character momentum continually evolves, thematically centering on the passage of time, fate, forgiveness, redemption, absolution and self-reclamation. It’s a smart, sharp saga – one I adore dearly.

BALLERINA’s impetus to act, however, is far less compelling compared to her male counterpart. Hers is that of pure vengeance for her father’s death (Daddy Issues!), a tale which has been explored with greater narrative skill and nuance in other films of its ilk. There’s a tissue-paper-thin attempt to connect Eve’s traumatic youth (which informs her internal stakes) with young Ella’s, given she might experience a similar circumstance. But this thread lasts for all of one sequence, if that.

Wiseman and longtime WICK scribe Shay Hatten clearly want their heroine’s internal motivations to derive from the notion of family (whether blood-related or her adopted tribe), yet they experience problems fusing her troubled origin story with her overarching emotional throughline. Eve never appears to struggle with the irony that avenging her deceased biological family members means putting her current Russian mob family – the Ruska Roma – in danger. She’s a one-woman army constructed all wrong. Everything surrounding her older sister, who’s mentioned in the clunkiest of passings in the prologue’s opening, is given a hand wave rather than incorporated with a modicum of intelligence.

As the trailers and marketing have already spoiled, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) appears to remind audiences what world they’re in, as if they forgot, and attempt to liven up this flat, lifeless drivel. Still, his cameo on Eve’s timeline is ham-handled. It stretches credulity that he would jeopardize his own unrelenting quest for any side hustle, as this supposedly takes place between CHAPTER 3 –PARABELLUM and CHAPTER 4. His nonsensical inclusion feels inorganic and inauthentic, worsening the more he participates in the 3rd act. He’s also utilized as a cheap deus ex machina at the end of a desperate attempt at replicating the delirious perfection that is the “dragon’s breath” sequence in CHAPTER 4, this time with flamethrowers. 

Perhaps it’s the material not being there for her, or the poor, scattershot direction, but de Armas is a vacant presence. She can nimbly kick ass when it comes to the dance-like choreography, but is severely hobbled by a stagnant script. Byrne’s villain is neither unhinged, nor particularly charismatic, causing us to question his cult leader bona fides. Catalina Sandino Moreno, who plays the Chancellor’s right-hand woman Lena, is also dealt short shrift, lacking necessary scenes to make a powerful impact.

Though the narrative acts as a leaden weight, a handful of the Big Action Set Pieces are conceptualized and executed skillfully. The 87eleven stunt team finds new avenues into the malicious melees, from the reverse portrait of Eve’s crime scene, walking us backwards through the unseen mayhem she caused, to her grenade-fu tactics, stuffing grenades in baddies’ mouths for them to explode in a blood-spattered display. The series’ sense of humor blessedly remains intact. It’s funny to see the perfectly-curated clips of changing channels on the hotel TV whenever Eve punches her foe with a TV remote. Chad Stahelski’s fingerprints could be seen on at least two later sequences – Eve’s fight with the Austrian cafe waitress as they smash plates on each other looking for a hidden gun, and Eve’s ice skate showdown – as they both exhibited his magical combination of delightful entertainment and character enrichment.

At certain points, it appears the filmmakers’ sole interests are rolling through the beats of what we’d expect to see a “Jean Wick” do: visit the NYC Continental and reunite with recognizable supporting characters, get a neon-lit nightclub assignment, go to an armory dealer to select her weapons, and ultimately battle through baddies to face-off against the Big Bad whilst causing irreparable damage to her life, sequel baiting a next adventure. In their execution, though, they devalue the franchise with their uncreative, cobbled-together product.

Grade: 2 out of 5

BALLERINA opens in theaters on June 6.