Sacrifice had its World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.

Romain Gavras has always been a director drawn to spectacle. More known for making music videos, he takes another swing (possibly his biggest) at narrative films. Sacrifice arrives with the promise of operatic satire, unrelenting energy, and social commentary. Unfortunately, while the film brims with ambition and scale, it stumbles under its own weight. The result is a movie that dazzles the eye in flashes but leaves the heart and mind frustratingly untouched.

At its core, Sacrifice attempts to grapple with themes of purpose, revenge, and the choice between the world and oneself. Set against the backdrop of Greece, the story follows an actor (Chris Evans) caught in a hostage situation where the group of terrorists convinces him that the world is going to end unless he and two others sacrifice themselves. The synopsis seems like a great time, but the execution is muddled, weighed down by overwrought plotting and thinly sketched characters who rarely feel like more than ciphers for Gavras’s grander ideas.

Visually, there’s not much to look at for this movie. Sacrifice opens with a bravura sequence that thrusts the audience directly into chaos—a roving camera capturing a fiery funeral. It flourishes, creating sequences that are kinetic, immersive, and unlike anything most directors attempt to achieve. Yet, after the first half hour, the film’s energy plateaus. What initially feels electrifying begins to feel repetitive, as if Gavras is more interested in sustaining a mood than developing his narrative.

The film’s biggest weakness is its screenplay. Dialogue is stilted, often veering into melodrama without grounding itself in emotional truth. Characters deliver pronouncements rather than conversations, leaving little room for nuance. Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the leader of the terrorists, are written flatly. Evans was funny, but Taylor-Joy plays the most Anya Taylor-Joy character to date. Her motivations shift erratically, with sudden bursts of rage or moments of stoicism that feel rough. Without a strong emotional throughline, the high-stakes confrontations appear hollow. Performances fare no better. The cast is a recipe for success, but Gavras directs them with such intensity that subtlety is lost. Each scene seems dialed up to maximum intensity, leaving little contrast or variation.

Thematically, Sacrifice explores profound ideas about climate change and the concept of purpose. Yet it never quite delivers on them. Instead, this film reduces its themes to slogans. It gestures toward profundity but fails to explore the complexities beneath. Violence begets violence, yes—but Gavras offers little insight into why or how of the terrorists' intentions. The result is a film that feels self-serious without being particularly thoughtful. There are moments, though, when Gavras’s gifts break through. Evans once again proves he can bring a strong comedic effort to his projects. The flip side of that is he’s zero for two in movies this year, where he proves this between this and last month’s Honey Don’t!. Vincent Cassel also gives a noteworthy monologue in the film’s climax, but it’s undermined by how the movie makes him out to be the villain when he wasn’t. These factors linger, a testament to a filmmaker who knows how to create unforgettable tableaux. Unfortunately, they are isolated sparks in an otherwise muddled narrative.

Perhaps most frustrating is how the film wastes its potential. Sacrifice clearly aims to be both visceral and profound, a fusion of cinematic fireworks, weighty drama, and political humor. But in prioritizing spectacle over story, Gavras undermines his own ambitions. By the end, the film feels like a 105-minute trailer for a deeper, more engaging work that never materializes. The audience is left with striking visuals but little to emotionally hold onto. In the crowded landscape of modern cinema, ambition is always welcome. Few filmmakers take the risks Gavras does, and for that, he deserves some credit. Yet ambition without discipline often collapses into excess, and that’s precisely what happens here. Sacrifice is a movie that wants to be urgent and unforgettable, but instead feels heavy-handed and repetitive, its power diluted by its lack of focus.

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