Everyone knows what to expect from the modern Netflix action blockbuster.The Gray Man, Red Notice, orExtractionhave individual elements, but their core traits are frustratingly comparable. They’re all driven by celebrity before any narrative thrust. They’re all generic examples of their genre without much to add to the conversation. AddHeart of Stoneto the pile, making Gal Gadot a rare return customer to Netflix’s movie-by-committee assembly line.
Heart of Stonecomes to the screen from prolific TV director Tom Harper. Its script was written by Allison Schroeder ofHidden Figuresfame and Greg Rucka, whose adaptation of his comicThe Old Guardislikely the best of the recent Netflix action crop.Stoneis Rucka’s second feature film, suggesting a sharp decline for the respected comic book author when he’s not working with his previous source material.
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Heart of Stonefollows a spy named Stone pursuing a dangerous MacGuffin called The Heart. It’s a classic example of pun-based screenplay writing. Gal Gadot’s Rachel Stone is introduced as a neophyte spy working with an established MI6 team on a mission in the mountains of Italy. Things go sideways, so Stone breaks out the big-budget stunts to save the day. Unbeknownst to her colleagues, Stone is a member of Charter, a mysterious organization of intelligence agents working outside global politics to keep the peace. Their greatest asset is The Heart, acomplex AI rig thatcan steal data from any system, shut down any electronic device, and guide Stone in the form of a video game tutorial. Everything is going according to plan until a hacking wunderkind shuts down their nightmarish supercomputer and threatens to allow the technology into “the wrong hands.” It’s up to Stone and her pals to hunt down the hacker and save their dystopian privacy-violating data collection device.
Heart of Stoneis another example of a big studio putting the cart before the horse. Audiences have been exposed to a never-ending stream of failed cinematic universes, butStonehas its Heart set ontheMission: Impossiblefranchise. The film is so eager to get to the financial returns of the fifth and sixth entry in Tom Cruise’s spy series that it feels like a pilot episode for the sequels they’re already banking on. Aside from Stone and the young hacker, the characters are blank slates. The action set pieces are serviceable, but it’s lacking the inherent draw of Tom Cruise trying to die in every alternate scene. There are stunts, but it’s hard to tell whether any of them are particularly “real.” The few quality action beats tend to fallapart into Gal Gadotrunning away from gunfire that inexplicably avoids her.Heart of Stonefeels like a proof-of-concept experiment, but it’s too soulless to succeed.
SuggestingHeart of Stonehas nothing to say is the most charitable interpretation. If it pushes a worldview, it’s doing so without thinking ahead. Imagine aversion ofThe Dark Knightin which Batman spent most of the runtime trying to justify and keep his surveillance network. Instead of arguing that extreme Patriot Act-esque measures should be used wisely and immediately destroyed,Heart of Stonesuggests that the thin line between order and chaos is a group of unaccountable spiesstealing all the dataon Earth. The Heart isn’t just a method of corralling all information. It predicts the actions of every moving piece in a situation. The idea that it could fall into the “wrong hands” is the threat, but far too few people note that it probably shouldn’t be available to anyone. It’s not a thoughtful film. Its thesis seems to be that good people should have power, bad people shouldn’t, and no one should ever consider how that power is used.
As a box office phenomenon,Gal Gadot is likewhen a musician tries out a new direction and refuses to back away. She’s been in front and center in several major franchises, and Hollywood has kept trying to give her something substantial, but she just can’t find footing. Hollywood wants her to work, but viewers either tolerate or mock her incessantly. Jamie Dornan, Paul Ready, and Alia Bhatt do their best in their roles, but the camera treats them as decorations for Gadot to bounce off of. It’s impossible to ignore this film’s purpose as a franchise vehicle for an actress that seems more comfortable posing dramatically than doing anything else.
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Heart of Stone
Heart of Stone is a Netflix original spy action film starring Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, and Matthias Schweighöfer. The film centers on Rachel Stone (Gadot) as she is assigned to protect a mysterious object called “The Heart.” The film was released on the streaming service in August 2023.
