LONG ISLAND, N.Y. _ With plenty of guns, fistfights and bloodshed, "The Rhythm Section" has all the hallmarks of a classic revenge-thriller _ the story of an ordinary person who becomes a highly skilled assassin to track down a murderer. Trailers and posters for the R-rated film promise exactly the kind of violent, action-driven entertainment you might expect from a midwinter release: Think "Taken," starring Liam Neeson, or "Edge of Darkness," with Mel Gibson.
There's one difference, however: The hero of "The Rhythm Section" is a woman.
Blake Lively in the lead as Stephanie Patrick, a Londoner whose parents perished in a downed plane, "The Rhythm Section" offers a rarity: a realistic, female action-heroine who is neither an invincible superhero nor a high-heeled seductress. The film's producer, Barbara Broccoli, is the woman behind EON Productions, of James Bond fame; the director, a Long Islander named Reed Morano, is also a woman. (Mark Burnell adapted the screenplay from his novel.) When "The Rhythm Section" arrives in theaters Friday, it will mark only the third non-Bond film from EON _ not quite "Jane Bond," perhaps, but a female spy film nonetheless.
