Of late a lot of the streaming services have been getting into the spy game. They’ve been creating new films or series like Citadel, Prime Video, Lioness, Paramount Plus, for their services. Another such film is Heart of Stone for Netflix based on a story by Greg Rucka, popular author and comic book writer, This one stars a global mega star Gal Gadot. Famous for portraying Wonder Woman.  When she signed on board for this film it became instantly a must-see. Netflix and Skydance knew that when they signed her.

Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) is a member of a Special Ops group as part of a global peacekeeping organization known as The Charter. She is specifically told to stay in the van while working undercover as part of an MI6 team but due to some unforeseen circumstances, she has to leave the van and get into action. Other members of her team are Parker (Jamie Dornan) Theresa Yang (Jing Lusi) Max Bailey (Paul Ready) and unseen people Jack of Hearts (Matthias Scheighofer) and their leader Nomad (Sophie Okenedo) Together they try to stop corrupt and evil men and women who are trying to take over the world. With the help of “The Heart” a MacGuffin, which is an all-knowing all seeing computer. 

This film is a globetrotting adventure that allows its characters to go everywhere from the Alps in Eastern Europe to Senegal, Iceland and London, England, and other places. While in all these far-flung locations there are some incredible action sequences. Gadot does some incredible things in this film. From riding a skylift using a parachute to jumping out of a plane without a chance of living but does. She isn’t supposed to be doing any of this stuff because she is a techy who stays in the van. Things start to get crazy though and gets turned upside down and she’s forced into action.

The technical aspects of this film are very good. There are a lot of computer graphics that give nessacary information to move the plot along. The cinematography is quite beautiful combining with the visual effects the lighting used makes the film look very real. Add in some suspenseful music and a catchy song at the beginning of the film and this movie has all the nessacary ingredients to be a very good film. It’s that and much more though. Fans of action and Gadot will love it.

There are enigmatic female hackers from India and backstabbing spies who keep the plot moving forward. A lot of this is a bit much but once you get used to it you can follow along. The story/script by Rucka and Allison Schroeder mixes a lot of different spy craft elements to create a very good film. All the various spy lingo and mumbo jumbo make for a very good and complicated espionage film. With all the others that came out lately this one might be one of the better ones in recent memory. 

Gal Gadot has become a huge star and this film proves that. She has become at ease with all the action sequences and fighting scenes she’s in. She seems like an old pro at this stuff even though she hasn’t been doing it for that long, about ten years, her Mossad training has come in handy, especially with all the gunplay and fight scenes. Her acting has improved as well. Where she was a bit wooden earlier on she has now just become a pro at difficult dialogue and added a bit of a sense of humor in her acting ability. This script allows her to do everything in her power to be believable as this character. She succeeds superbly.

Tom Harper the director had his hands full with all the elements in this movie. There are twists and turns, many action sequences, visual effects, and incredible cinematography that play into all of what’s going on in this film. Harper combines so many things from past spy movies and television shows to this one and a few touches from very recent films. It’s hard to come up with new ideas but Rucka wrote a fascinating story with a great main character at its heart, no pun intended. Heart of Stone is one of the better spy films I’ve seen lately. Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning is included in that. It’s that good and the cast led by Gadot shines in this film. Netflix has a winner on its hands in a slow month of August.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen