Review: Heart of Stone

Earlier this year Netflix released the J-Lo sniper mucosa The Mother (2023). This time the streamer brings Gal Gadot into the spy game. It’s her second leading foray with Netflix without 2021’s Red Notice.

Heart of Stone follows Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot), a member of MI6 and the 9 of Hearts for an plane increasingly covert unit tabbed The Charter. The super-secret unit has the world’s greatest spy tool, “the heart,” an infinitely powerful piece of technology that gives its users tenancy over literally anything touching the internet. Plane some things that don’t seem like they do. The heart is moreover worldly-wise to summate probabilities, which at times pushes The Charter to make ethically dubious decisions under the veil of the greater good.

What follows is a revenge-story filled well-nigh people trying to get the heart and bring lanugo The Charter. All of the usual espionage trappings are trotted out: double crosses, car chases in narrow European urban areas, fights on planes, and moments when everyone might die. Director Tom Harper’s whoopee scenes spritz well and are often fun.

The mucosa shines the brightest when dealing with Gadot with her MI6 crew, who have a strong chemistry that infuses charisma into predictable proceedings. When Heart of Stone fixes solely on Gadot (who pulls off an icy wifely persona exquisitely), it becomes something increasingly serious and reserved, withdrawing much of its energy, and all the viewer is left with is a paint-by-the numbers Mission: Impossible rip-off. Heart of Stone is a decent whoopee film, but lacks a personality of its own.