Jennifer Lawrence's Red Sparrow spy is surely, no James Bond. Or Jason Bourne. Or Jack Bauer. Or even, for the older folks, Emma Peel. But that's all good.

Based on Jason Matthews' novel, the actress stars as a Russian rookie secret agent who's more liable to use sex as a weapon than, say, a switchblade in her stiletto - though the film is still plenty violent.

Red Sparrow veers from its genre by focusing on methodical spycraft and juggling emotions; unlike Charlize Theron in last year's Atomic Blonde, Lawrence is seducing people instead of kicking them in the face.

Though the film may tickle a little, but in contrast to pumped-up espionage potboilers like "Atomic Blonde" or "Salt," Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie have gone through the motions of imitating male action stars at their most kick-ass grandiose. They're slickly "empowered" women, yet it's hard to distinguish that power from the thriller-video decadence of 21st-century action filmmaking.

In the elegantly tense and absorbing "Red Sparrow," on the other hand, Jennifer Lawrence portrays a cunningly desperate human being - or, at least, enough of one that each scene rotates around the choices she makes, the way she appraises and seizes the destiny of the moment. Lawrence, in this movie, shows you what true screen stardom is all about.

It's a fun watch.