Heart of Stone (2023)
Gal Gadot, who plays Charter intelligence agent Rachel Stone, is on a race against time to find the hacker who’s trying to gain access to the Heart, a mysterious AI that can and will control everything if it falls into the wrong hands. It knows everything about everyone—passwords, contacts, work history, records of all kinds. It can make planes fall out of the sky. It can seize bank accounts. It can set off weapons of mass destruction. Whoever controls The Heart controls the world.
Ummmm, where have we seen that before?
*insert the Mission: Impossible theme and a vigorous hat tip to Tom Cruise here*
Yep, Heart of Stone has plenty in common with Dead Reckoning, and for that matter, a bit with Minority Report, because Rachel’s contact, Jack, uses a lot of floating computer screens when they talk over Rachel’s earpiece. Rachel also parachutes off a cliff and careens through the streets on a motorcycle, although unlike our man Ethan Hunt, she wears a helmet. She may not wear a mask, but her team wonders who she really is after she exhibits more skill than a lowly techie would ordinarily possess. And according to ScreenRant, the film’s cinematographer George Steel modeled the look of the movie after Octopussy.
Beyond that, though, how is Heart of Stone? It’s OK. It’s interesting to see Gal Gadot play a role that isn’t Wonder Woman but still requires her to get physical. With her background in the Israeli Defense Forces, she’s the real deal in combat scenes and has a very strong presence as an action hero. I’m guessing she did most if not all of her own stunts.
Everyone else, though, is pretty generic, especially the lead villain, and I won’t spoil who that is, but suffice it to say, one of the characters gave me Handsome Man vibes. While the plot keeps things moving at a nice clip and there are plenty of fun moments, we don’t know who any of these people are, probably because moles are a thing and we don’t know who to trust.
Also, the filmmakers seem to be big fans of Fleetwood Mac, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I digress.
The other thing is that there isn’t as much of a sense of place. Everyone just moves from country to country and environment to environment and it’s no big deal. It feels very choppy and disorienting, making Heart of Stone pretty easy to disengage from, so when the payoff finally happens it’s not what it could be.
Speaking of disengagement, the film clocks in at just over two hours and the plot feels a wee bit stretched, so shaving off fifteen minutes or a half hour would have done it a world of good. Sure, it’s fun to see Gal Gadot go at someone, but after half a dozen instances of murderous randos trying to kill Rachel Stone, we kinda get the idea.
Even though Heart of Stone could have used a bit more punch, plotwise, I would probably watch a sequel if one came along, especially if it copped a clearer, less hackneyed identity than its predecessor.
Heart of Stone is currently streaming on Netflix. Rated PG-13.
My grade: B-
Principal Cast: Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Paul Ready, Enzo Cilenti, Joe Reisig, Luca Fiamenghi, Alia Bhatt, Matthias Schweighofer, Thomas Arnold, Ruth Keeling, Archie Medekwe, Sophie Okenedo, Glenn Close, BD Wong, Mark Ivanir, Uriel Emil, Diana Yekkini
Written by George Rucka and Allison Schroeder.
Directed by Tom Harper.