Heart of Stone review: The film belongs to Gal Gadot and Alia

Watch it if you are a fan of Alia Bhatt and Gal Gadot and for their effort. If not, stay away

Hyderabad: Just about a month ago, we saw Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) take on Artificial Intelligence to save the world. This time around, it is Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) trying to save the world from the bad guys taking control over the AI Heart. It is also refreshing to see a Bollywood actor go toe-to-toe with the contemporaries of Hollywood, specially when she is doing so well back home. Kudos to Alia Bhatt.

The film starts with a team of MI6 secret agents planning to capture an arms dealer. The team leader Parker (Jamie Dornan) directs Stone (Gal Gadot) to not get out of the van. Things go south and Stone is forced to enter the fray. Unknown to the viewers, Stone is part of a secret organisation – the Charter – more secret than the MI6. They use an AI known as the Heart to calculate the probability of routes and actions. Helping Stone along the way is Jack (Matthias Schweighöfer). In the midst of the mayhem, the team realise that they are compromised, thanks to Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt). The team fails to extract the arms dealer. The team now has a new target – Keya. As usual, there is a mole in the team who has ulterior motives. What follows is a cat and mouse game with chase sequences in Portugal, the Sahara and Iceland. Who finally gains control of Heart is what the rest of the movie is about.

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It looks like director Tom Harper has borrowed a lot from Mission Impossible and Citadel. The problem is not with the product, but the timing. Streaming a movie which is very similar in plot and execution to both should not have been done so close to their heels.

Tragically, with movies revolving around espionage and action, one is limited in terms of script and must adhere to an existing template. This is a template that most film goers would be accustomed to. The saving grace this time around is Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt. Both prove as to why they are ranked among the best of contemporary actors. Tragically it is the script that is the letdown. Individually, Gadot and Bhatt are in their element. It is good to see Bhatt not to use a foreign accent. The film belongs to Gal Gadot and Alia.

The others are there only to fill the gaps. Jamie Dornan is wasted. There was a lot in scope for Dornan’s character, but the director fails to capitalise. Even the backstory to Dornan’s character ends before you realise it is one. One is but bound to compare Gadot to Cruise and therein lies the film’s downfall. Though there are scenes where the visuals look stunning, a few of them look like textbook templates.

Watch it if you are a fan of Alia Bhatt and Gal Gadot and for their effort. If not, stay away.