The Mother Review: Jennifer Lopez Becomes An Action Star In This Predictable Thriller
Jennifer Lopez stars in The Mother on Netflix, a film with great moments that don't add up to a satisfying whole.
REVIEW SCORE
The Mother came out today on Netflix, and unlike much of Jennifer Lopez‘s filmography, it’s an action movie. The Shotgun Wedding star had gone on record that she regrets not getting more action roles when she was younger, and given her performance in this film, it’s clear she has what it takes. The best part of the movie is Lopez’s performance as an elite military sniper, but she’s let down by everything else around her in this by-the-numbers revenge tale.
Jennifer Lopez plays a nameless assassin, referred to even in the closed captions only as “The Mother,” that was recruited by a corrupt general to be part of a clandestine operation, which inevitably all goes south. We don’t know that until a quarter of the way through the film, which starts during an FBI interrogation as a pair of agents try to get information out of the very-pregnant woman who is going to soon be a mother. A poorly-lit fight scene plays out to bring us into the present, after another agent, with a performance so wooden, Edie Falco could have phoned it in, separates The Mother from her newborn.
Twelve years later, Jennifer Lopez’s taciturn character is living a solitary life in Alaska, as far from civilization as she can manage, which comes complete with the on-the-nose inclusion of a mother wolf and her pups. At this point, Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) alerts her that her daughter is in danger, and we get our first sniping scene in the middle of a crowded park. Given her willingness to shoot villains dead feet away from children playing, it’s hard to root for The Mother, though it would be much easier if the villains were fleshed out in any way.
Gael Garcia Bernal gets far less screen time than he deserves as one of the arms dealers, getting to shine at the end of the first act right before the movie transitions away from being a John Wick knock-off into something far more interesting. The Mother reunites with her daughter, Zoe (Lucy Paez), going on the run together as the film slows down and shows the pair bonding for the first time, with Paez and Jennifer Lopez demonstrating amazing on-screen chemistry as they play off of one another. The scenes with the pair in the wilderness of Alaska are the best of the movie, proving there’s a good film to be made out of the parts of The Mother, but the director, Niki Caro, spends over an hour getting to where the film should have started.
And then, the sequence is over, as The Mother reverts back to a generic action film that, in its defense, includes the best sniping sequences since 2001’s Enemy at the Gates. The final shot, in particular, is amazingly framed, with the camera showing the timing and precision required to make a once-in-a-lifetime shot, but these moments can’t overcome the otherwise dull dialogue and wafer-thin plot. Jennifer Lopez isn’t given a chance to show off the full extent of her range as an action star, but there are tantalizing glimpses that a movie with a better structure would let her shine.
That’s the problem with The Mother. There are legitimately great moments sprinkled throughout, from the sniping to an amazing shot of a falling bouquet at a wedding and the quieter, character-driven scenes between Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez. Still, it’s not enough to sustain the nearly two-hour run time.
Hopefully, The Mother helps encourage Jennifer Lopez to pursue more action star roles, and her second time out will avoid the pitfalls of her rookie effort. The film is serviceable for a Netflix original movie, but for every great moment, there are three pointless scenes, cursing the film with the descriptor that no student likes to hear: “Never reached full potential.”
