Everyone knows what to expect from the modern Netflix action blockbuster. The Gray Man, Red Notice, or Extraction have 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. Add Heart of Stone to the pile, making Gal Gadot a rare return customer to Netflix's movie-by-committee assembly line.
Heart of Stone comes to the screen from prolific TV director Tom Harper. Its script was written by Allison Schroeder of Hidden Figures fame and Greg Rucka, whose adaptation of his comic The Old Guard is likely the best of the recent Netflix action crop. Stone is 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.
Heart of Stone follows 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, a complex AI rig that can 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 Stone is 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, but Stone has its Heart set on the Mission: Impossible franchise. 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 fall apart into Gal Gadot running away from gunfire that inexplicably avoids her. Heart of Stone feels like a proof-of-concept experiment, but it's too soulless to succeed.
Suggesting Heart of Stone has nothing to say is the most charitable interpretation. If it pushes a worldview, it's doing so without thinking ahead. Imagine a version of The Dark Knight in 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 Stone suggests that the thin line between order and chaos is a group of unaccountable spies stealing all the data on 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 like when 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.
Heart of Stone is as dull as it is incurious. Anyone who has seen a recent spy film, especially a Mission: Impossible outing, has seen everything worthwhile here. Assuming that Gal Gadot fans exist, they'll be Heart of Stone's most ardent defenders. Ranking all the Netflix action blockbusters isn't worth the effort, but this film probably won't bring in new subscribers. Trying and failing to be a bit more thoughtful than The Gray Man has only buried the movie deeper. It'll kill two hours on a lazy afternoon, but Heart of Stone isn't the vehicle Gal Gadot has been looking for.
Heart of Stone
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- Release Date
- August 11, 2023
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.