Heart of Stone (2023) – That sinking feeling

Consider this.

A secret agent is on a mission and saves the world. He returns to his home town and agency and is given a new mission. And then he discovers that he has to save the world all over again as he did not do a proper job of it in the first place. So he gathers a team/ sidekick and searches for the villain. And saves the world all over again. In between, you have car chases at Mach 2, Megatons of explosions that would leave the nuclear armouries of the world stunned, fancy computer graphics that help the lead artistes to perform impossible stunts and a cool agent who doesn’t have a wrinkle in his immaculate dress, leave alone a scratch on his forehead. Oh Yes. Somewhere in between, he discovers that one of his team members or the sidekick is working for the bad guys.

How many “spy/action films”  do you know of that follow this template? The James Bond franchise has kept repeating this formula for sixty years. You now have the Mission Impossible Series and the Jason Bourne Series that also faithfully adapt this formula to their universe.

Now replace all the He  (in the introduction) with a She, and you have Heart of Stone on Netflix. The working premise seems to be that we should have equality in the spy game – so let’s have a female agent doing all the Bond-like stunts. I am not a big fan of the Bond, the MI or the Bourne series as they all faithfully adhere to this tired formula. Heart of Stone is another addition to this bland “spy films” list with mindless action and impossible stunts.

So now, if we rewrite our first para, then we have Rachel Stone, aka Nine of Hearts (Gal Gadot), working for MI6 while actually working for a mysterious organisation called The Charter (go figure) who wants to “do good for the world”. The super weapon that the bad guys are after? Ah, yes – you guessed it. A  Quantum computer with unbelievable – pun intended – features that can predict good or bad outcomes. Stone soon comes to know who is the Mole, that wants to steal the computer’s heart – no big spoilers here, as you will guess that one of the four team members will be the Mole. Since there are two men and two women in the team, logic says it has to be one of the men and not necessarily the home-loving, goofy, chubby back-office computer guy. The Mole is aided by a super hacker from India, Key Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), who wants to use The Heart for her purposes. So Stone has to save The Heart and, in the process, save the world. Phew!

Stone’s journey in this mad rush starts from the Alps and then goes downhill all the way – pun intended – as she saves the world (Oh, that’s being repeated, right? Because there is so much emphasis again and again in the script that in the wrong hands the heart can be dangerous!!). In the process, she goes to London, Lisbon, the Saharas, and finally, Iceland. After causing mayhem in all these locations, we are satisfied that she HAS saved the world.

If I am being harsh on the film, it’s mainly because the mindless script is just an excuse for propagating one CGI stunt after another at us while hanging on to the wafer-thin “spy movie” template. There is hardly anything remotely imaginative about the film.

If you think  Tom Cruise should be replaced by an actress in the MI franchise who keeps running throughout the movie – just like Cruise – then this is for you. Much like the “action guys” in the other series, Stone wears an all-black outfit for the fight sequences and the climactic battles.

The role reversal is complete in that the head of the Charter is a woman known as Nomad (Sophie Okenodo thoroughly wasted). The back office types are all men who whimper and whine when the bad guys shut down the power to their secret bunker and Nomad has to command them to look at alternatives to survive. The only believable character is the hacker Keya. Thankfully Alia Bhatt doesn’t use an American twang to justify her presence in the film and is credible. However, her gradual change of heart is something you can see coming a mile off.

This is for you if you have nothing better to do on a Sunday and love watching mindless explosions and gigantic CGI. Once the action starts, the script goes downhill all the way. It also confirms my theory that the more chances the movie will be dull or terrible, the bigger the Hype and promotions.

Heart of Stone is on NetFlix

Script – 2 out of 5

Story – 2 out of 5

Direction – 3 out of 5

Photography – 3 out of 5

Total – 2.5 out of 5