‘The Mother” is directed by Niki Caro (director of the live action “Mulan” remake) and written by Peter Craig (writer of “Top Gun: Maverick”), Andrea Berloff (writer of “Straight Outta Compton”) and Misha Green (showrunner for “Lovecraft Country”). Jennifer Lopez (“J.Lo”) stars as the titular mother (they never say her name in the movie), a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.
J.Lo is known by most mainstream audiences for her romantic comedies. “The Wedding Planner,” “Maid in Manhattan,” “Monster-in-Law” and all of those classic, early 2000s romcoms that she used to make solidified her with fans as the romcom legend she is known as today. Even earlier this year, she had another romcom, “Shotgun Wedding,” which I actually did enjoy, release on Amazon Prime.
However, while J.Lo is really good in those romantic comedies, some of her best work comes from her more dramatic roles and her work in some action thrillers. One of her earliest roles before she got into the romcom game was Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” with George Clooney where she is fantastic as a federal marshal. In 2019, J.Lo almost landed an Oscar nomination for her role in “Hustlers.” She really has a fantastic dramatic and physical presence when it comes to these more serious roles and it really allows her to shine.
That is much the same with her work here in “The Mother.” The film surrounding her may not be as great, which I’ll get to in a moment, but J.Lo herself is great. Her dance background prior to when she started acting is allowed to be shown off in the action sequences here even when those fight scenes aren’t as well put together or directed. She commands the screen in every scene she’s in and it really allows you to root for this character that on paper is pretty one-dimensional and cold. She adds so much to what otherwise might’ve been a complete flop of a movie.
I will say it’s not all bad. There are some great understated moments throughout the film, especially when the mother and her daughter Zoe (played by Mexican actress and relative newcomer Lucy Paez). When those two are allowed to be on screen together either actually bonding or training for the big fight ahead and working together, that’s when the film really shines and the message actually starts to form.
Everything else surrounding these scenes is unfortunately pretty uninteresting. There’s just something missing that would tie everything together. It’s extremely generic and predictable and ends up being the type of movie that you can fold laundry or do something else while watching it and not miss a whole lot. Aside from the mother/daughter moments, it’s the type of action thriller that we’ve seen a bunch of times before.
It’s also just way too slow and way too long. Clocking in at almost two hours, there are scenes and moments that could’ve been cut or shorten to both make this a quicker watching and give the film a quicker pace. It’s trying to be a cold, slow-burn meditative thriller, but in trying to be that, it just becomes a bit boring in some scenes. A few action sequences does give it the boost it needs, but those are just too few and far between.
It’s also a bit heavy handed in its messaging and metaphors in some parts. There is this reoccurring thing that happens between the mother and a wolf that really tries to drive home the comparison between the two and how a human mother and a human wolf would do anything for their kids, but it really should’ve been more subtle than it ended up being. The movie makes it point, but just keeps on remaking it over and over again.
Overall, while J.Lo is great, the writer and directing are just not enough to save this. Too slow, too long, too obvious, too predictable and poorly written with cartoonish and one dimensional villains and side characters alike. I wish this could’ve been better because there is some potential here. “The Mother” is currently streaming on Netflix.
Jordan Wooodson can be reached at jwoodson@thecabin.net
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