RED Sparrow is quite a daring proposition, a commercial spy film with gruesome violence and disturbing sexual content, starring a Hollywood actress in her most provocative role. So, credit’s due for ambition. But the result is colder than the Cold War, a brutal, unpleasant film that never takes hold.

It is well-timed, given what we know of Russia’s tampering with the US presidential election. Based on the novel by former CIA agent Jason Matthews, who presumably knows what he’s talking about, it’s set in the present day and suggests that the spy game between the superpowers is as active and Machiavellian as anything before the fall of the Wall.

Jennifer Lawrence is Dominika Egorova, a Bolshoi ballerina whose career is destroyed by a fellow dancer’s strategically misplaced foot. With an ailing mother to care for, Dominika is suddenly at the mercy of her uncle Ivan (Matthias Schoenaerts), number two at the Russian intelligence agency and a disingenuous snake keen to exploit her.

Dominika is given no choice but to join an elite group of spies, Sparrows, whose chief tool is seduction. Sparrow school is presided over by the aptly named Matron (the lizard-eyed and convincingly malign Charlotte Rampling), a cross between a governess and a camp commandant who expects her charges to routinely debase themselves for the State. Never has spy training seemed so truly awful.

Once General Korchnoi (Jeremy Irons) decides she is ready, Dominika’s mission is to unmask a mole within the Russian ranks. To do that, she must seduce the mole’s CIA handler, Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), in Budapest. Arriving in Hungary, she poses as a translator, dons her skimpiest swimsuit and heads for Nash’s favourite pool.

As with many spy stories, there are echoes of John le Carré’s work everywhere. There’s a reverse Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy dynamic, with the Russians now the ones hunting down their traitor, and a familiar plethora of station chiefs and agents muddying the waters. And the film works best in its spy crafting, particularly the early stages of cat and mouse between Dominika and Nash, who knows exactly who he’s dealing with. Dominika needs the mole, Nash sees in her another agent to turn; when they sleep together, it’s not entirely certain who’s playing whom.

However, there is an ever-present vein of nastiness in this film, which includes vicious beatings, rape and attempted rape, murder, and scenes of psychological and physical torture. It’s intentional, as Francis Lawrence sets out to create a convincingly cruel milieu in which Russia treats its own subjects – even its once-beloved artists – as human meat. But the tone, combined with too much simmer in the pacing and a lack of chemistry between the leads, prevents the film from engaging on any level.

It’s hard to know why Jennifer Lawrence would appear in this, other than to reteam with her three-time Hunger Games director (but no relation) Francis. Playing a character who’s frequently required to disrobe (Dominika refers to her training as "whore school") while remaining inscrutable doesn’t give this intuitive, flesh-and-blood actress any opportunity to show her worth. Edgerton and Schoenaerts are both unflashy performers who make believable fists of the honest field agent and the venal spymaster. But the film’s verisimilitude would have benefitted from some Russians in the cast.

Since Matthews has written a Red Sparrow trilogy, sequels are likely being mooted. Personally, I preferred the adventures of another, recent female screen spy – Charlize Theron’s Lorraine Broughton in the more action-oriented Atomic Blonde. Perhaps she and Dominika could team up – whether as the Atomic Sparrows or the Strawberry Blondes, they’d be unbeatable.