Heart of Stone (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon.

My Take – It’s been obvious that Netflix has been desperately trying to launch a blockbuster franchise of their own for some time now. But while their star-studded ventures, Red Notice (2021) and The Gray Man (2022) managed to rake in record viewership numbers, their approach of cobbling together scenes and ideas from far superior films minus creativity has well proven that they still don’t understand how these films should work.

Their latest too attempts to mirror the longstanding tradition of a traditional-yet-enjoyable spy thriller, particularly the recently released Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (who share executive producers) being its most direct source of inspiration alongside the likes of the drab Amazon Prime series, Citadel.

But despite having all the main ingredients like a recognizable leading star, notable action sequences, multiple worldwide locations, and plot twists, the film also ends up being nothing more than a forgettable cinematic journey that lacks substance and originality, despite its impressive production quality.

Directed by Tom Harper (The Aeronauts) and written by Greg Rucka (The Old Guard) and Allison Schroeder (Christopher Robin), the aim here clearly is to launch a female-lead version of a Mission Impossible-type franchise, and while Gal Gadot is definitely capable of leading something like this but Rachel Stone is such a boring character with zero depth that the whole experience ends up becoming dull, derivative, forgettable and somehow even worse than all of the previous attempts to get an espionage franchise going from Netflix. It’s all just so disappointing.

Opening in the Alps, the story follows Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot), a clumsy, inexperienced tech analyst who along with an elite MI6 team consisting of Parker (Jamie Dornan), Yang (Jing Lusi), and Bailey (Paul Ready) who finds herself on a covert mission to apprehend a wanted arms dealer. But when the plan goes awry, the analyst Stone jumps into action despite her supposed lack of field training.

Unbeknownst to her teammates, she’s actually a double agent for the Charter, a secret international spy agency. An outfit which with the help of a powerful AI software known as the Heart, that collates information at light speed and calculates optimal outcomes, help their agents perform successful missions in the shadows. Stone reports to her tough-minded boss at the Charter, Nomad (Sophie Okonedo), and works alongside an elite and witty technician, Jack of Hearts (Matthias Schweighöfer).

However, the failed MI6 mission introduces her to latest enemy in the form of Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), a gifted hacker who is intent on acquiring the Heart at all costs and to shift the global power dynamics of the world. Keya’s presence threatens Stone’s cover, forcing the elite agent to choose between saving her team or following the Charter’s orders and protecting The Heart. Thus beginning a global cat-and-mouse chase that takes them around the globe.

No doubt, the film makes a concerted effort to play against tropes and champion a female action hero like Gadot with a more humanistic, grounded approach. The film seems to make the same mistakes other Netflix releases did in the past, emphasizing action over plot and character development.

While its immediate inspiration Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) is backed by a complex plot involving a world-eating AI (among other things), this one’s plot is not as complex and simply fails to engage. The screenplay might as well be written by an algorithm, a soulless amalgamation of the elements determined by current metrics to ensure an international hit.

Plus, Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder’s script allows no space for any substantive moments of backstory or nuance for anyone in the cast who seem to be stuck playing paper-thin characters. Any real exploration of who they are as people, rather than their ideological leanings, is run over by the film’s frenetic pace.

What director Tom Harper can be proud of are some of its really elaborate action sequences, which are quite effective when not too dependent on green screen. There’s fun to be had with scenes like the flying fight above a Senegalese desert or the car chase through the streets of Lisbon, as well as the promising opening sequence in the casino ski resort in the Italian Alps.

Performance wise, Gal Gadot has a magnetic screen presence and ably shoulders most of the film. She plunges headlong into her role and ensure that even in the most routine of situations there is a spark. Thanks to her Wonder Woman persona, she comfortably pulls off all the incredulous action sequences that would have felt too ludicrous with any other actor. Nevertheless, she pales a little in comparison to Alia Bhatt, who has well proven her given talent in the Hindi cinema circuit and ends up stealing a bit of the lead star’s thunder. When the two duel onscreen, it makes for a delightful duet. In her international debut, she isn’t pushed all that much beyond her comfort zone.

Sadly, Jamie Dornan is wasted in a terribly written role, while Matthias Schweighöfer steals every scene he is in. In other roles, Sophie Okonedo, BD Wong, Archie Madekwe, Jing Lusi and Paul Ready are alright. On the whole, ‘Heart of Stone’ is yet another run-of-the-mill espionage thriller that is mostly cliched, generic and predictable.