Heart of Stone Review: Gal Godot and Jamie Dornan are a Blast in this Over-the-Top Thriller

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

From the very first moments of Heart of Stone, it’s clear we’re going to be in for a fun couple of hours. In the Netflix film written by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder and directed by Tom Harper, the audience is thrown into the action right away as it tries to sort out who’s who and what each character is after. 

Gal Godot plays Rachel Stone, new to an MI6 team who assumes she’s not ready to be in the field. The rest of the team includes Parker (Jamie Dornan), Bailey (Paul Ready), and Yang (Jing Lusi), all working together to take down an arms dealer in the Alps.

This mission forces Stone to get closer to their target than the rest of the team is comfortable with, and she handles herself better than they thought she’d be able to.

It appears to be the story of an underdog in a very basic action film, but it turns out to be something far more complex. Instead, Gal Godot’s character is a badass former operative who fights like a superhero. She also has the help of her fellow members of “The Charter,” a super secret peace-keeping organization formed of highly trained operatives. 

Their secret weapon? An over-the-top piece of technology called “The Heart.”

This technology can hack into anything, watch anyone, and even guide Rachel Stone through tough terrain with statistical probabilities of success being fed to her by a teammate. It’s so elaborate that the movie immediately feels like a sci-fi film rather than a spy thriller. 

If you can get past the ridiculousness of this — and it’s not like other films haven’t used similar storytelling techniques — it’s certainly entertaining to watch.

It makes for some unique action sequences, and it also means the stakes are that much higher when a talented young hacker named Keya (Alia Bhatt) tries to take the whole thing over.

The Heart and all its power could destroy the world if it was in the wrong hands.

That becomes the key conflict in the film, forcing some unexpected alliances and more twists than are probably necessary. It’s unfortunate that a lot of the character development is glossed over. The motivations for every character on the screen are pretty thinly laid out, especially when it matters most to the story.

So much is left unexplained that the plot is murky at best, and the audience is left to ignore the fact that the premise is so unrealistic.

Instead, the focus is on the wild action scenes, several of which are so far-fetched that it’s hard to remain interested in the film. What makes it really special, though, is that this is a film that is female-led in the best of ways. It’s Gal Godot who gets the most interesting action-packed scenes, no matter how absurd they are.

It’s also worthwhile that there’s no need for the lead actress to love interest. Instead, we care about seeing her take down the villain and stop them from gaining access to The Heart.

There are also several touching moments throughout the film that involve teamwork and found family. This isn’t a film one might expect to cry during, but it has at least one scene that evokes a strong emotional response. 

With all its flaws, it’s ultimately an entertaining film with some beautiful scenery and a solidly satisfying ending.

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Heart of Stone is currently streaming on Netflix.

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