Heart of Stone Review - A Cliched Spy-Action Thriller With A Heart In The Right Place

Heart of Stone Review : Tom Harper's latest spy action thriller with Netflix stars Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, and Matthias Schweighöfer in the lead roles. Netflix seems to adore Spy action thrillers since "Red Notice" (2021) set several opening records for the streaming platform. Coincidentally, it also starred Gal Gadot, and it delivered what the genre demands, if not anything extraordinary. Heart of Stone is in the same zone, as it delivers everything that the genre demands, even though things have started looking cliched now. Heart of Stone has twists to survive—maybe that's why it dares to run blindly otherwise. Yes, it also has thrills and action, but the layout has nothing new to offer as it follows all the traditional chapters from the Bond and MI series from gone days. That's what's going wrong with almost every spy drama nowadays, be it Mission Impossible 7, Citadel, or Netflix's own Extraction, The Grey Man, and Red Notice. They are all running out of new conflicts. For someone who has seen Bond movies from the golden age, these spy dramas feel lukewarm, but for the new generation who have grown up in the OTT age, the same product looks thrilling. Heart of Stone is cliche for one club, while the other will enjoy it to its fullest. And don't forget, the "heart" is in the right place here.Talking even a brief bit about Heart of Stone's story will be like giving spoilers because the film has twists swinging you around right from the second scene. Let's make it short. Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) is working with the MI6 team, but they are unaware of her cover. She is actually an international intelligence agent working for "Charters" and is given a task to find a "heart" that is capable of hacking anything in the world—in other words, destroying the world. A Tech-savvy woman from Pune, Kaye Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), is playing all the strings to get the heart and create the biggest hacking system in the world. Stone and her partner, Parker (Jamie Dornan), must stop Kaye from getting the task done, while Charters' head, Nomad (Sophie Okonedo), wants Stone to get it for her agency. Will Stone be able to stop Kaye, or will there be any bigger threat than Kaye? Let's not spoil any twists for your own good.Heart of Stone starts off very well with a couple of twists that are unexpected to swing you around this soon. The problem appears in the second half, when the film turns out to be a very predictable affair. You know what is going to happen, and it kills all the fun of watching the action thriller. Thankfully, it doesn't bore you with a stretched narrative. No loo breaks, but only if there could be some more excitement and chilling moments. Roaming around global locations has become a mandatory thing for international spy thrillers, and so Heart of Stone couldn't be an exception. It has some lavish locations, good action sequences, a couple of thrilling chase scenes, and relatable theories to hook you up for two hours.Gal Gadot is the real star here. You see, watching a lady spy take over the entire film is a new and delightful experience. Gal suits that image; rather, she redefines it as a new change against the stereotypes. Jamie Dornan springs a nice surprise, and it's not just about his character but his performance as well. Watch out for him; that's all I can say. It's a joyful experience to see an Indian actress, a Bollywood actress, getting a meaty role in an international film, and I'd like to thank Alia Bhatt for making it true. She is the villain, one of the villains (sorry, I just gave a spoiler without context), and she has a fine role to play. A right choice for the role of a girl from Pune, western India, but did I miss her in action? Hell yes, I did. I would have loved to see at least one hand-to-hand combat, a face-off kind of thing, between Alia and Gal here, and I wasn't asking for too much, really. Sophie Okonedo and Matthias Schweighöfer have done well, whereas Jing Lusi and Paul Ready's small roles looked fine until they were done.As mentioned above, Heart of Stone is a lavish film, but it's technically beautiful too. Some fast-paced action, shaking frames, disturbing close-ups, top views of mountains and snow, explosions, vehicle rapid shots, a few breathtaking stunts—everything up to a cinematic spectacle. George Steel's cinematography and Mark Eckersley's editing both seemed edgy. The background score could have been more intense, though, and the dialogue too could have packed a better punch. I like Tom Harper's versatility and the way he tries his hand at different genres. Heart of Stone is nothing new for him or for the cinema World, but it's just a new world for Tom Harper and his team. It's blemished but aesthetically gorgeous. The old cliches don't bother us much since we are getting them in almost every film these days. It's about entertaining audiences, and Heart of Stone does that. A Spy thriller is nothing without a heart, and Heart of Stone is actually about a heart. How can you skip it, then? Watch it and experience the heart and Stone's struggle to get it.