It feels like every few months I end up watching the same exact movie, with one or maybe two "big" names in a story about some former military or police or special forces (or CIA or FBI...) who has to rescue some kid, be it theirs or someone important. They usually need to travel to some stereotyped "Hollywood" idea of a foreign country, typically involves lots of guns or drugs and almost always human trafficking, which is what Netflix's timely "The Mother," debuting Mother's Day weekend, has with even more cliches.
Jennifer Lopez stars as the titular mother, who after a lot of silly and needless plot, ends up trying to save, and keep safe, her teenage daughter from two former lovers(?) and all-around bad guys Adrian (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal). The "why" is because she double-crossed them in a goofy business triangle involving guns (check) and children (check) during her time in the service, but all that does is explain why she and they are so dangerous. Who cares? There's probably seventeen minutes of fat in the nearly two hour runtime, and much has to do with this gobblygook narrative; sometimes the unknown is far more interesting than what actually is, and this explanation is unsatisfying.
This is not explicitly a bad thing, I mean, I can enjoy a dumb movie as much as the next would-be critic, but considering the feminist themes that are superficially on display, it is a shame there isn't a decent message here. Between Liam Neeson and Gerard Butler, old white men have a stranglehold on the lightweight action thriller genre, and not even Lopez's unflappable screen presence can save such a misguided movie.
The largest problem is the depiction of strong women- there is no denying that Lopez's character is a badass, but the script has no issue showing her throw up at the sight of a freighter filled with supposedly stolen kids or taking a pause so she can cry, you know, just to remind you that she isn't above her "emotions." Why bring them up to begin with?
Another problem I had is with her associate Cruise, played by Omari Hardwick. In the opening she saves him after a gunshot wound, which I was assuming it was because it was the right thing to do, but when he later asks her why she didn't let him die, she replies that it's because he offered her water, that "it seemed" he wanted to take care of her. Excuse me, she looks like she can take care of herself.
It makes you think back to how well James Cameron wrote and directed Sigourney Weaver in "Aliens," and that was 1986; this is 2023, and women deserve better. Then again, what do I know? I'm just some guy on the internet after all, so who the hell says I can say what a proper portrayal of a woman is?
As for the film itself, the action is decent, aside from some occasionally dodgy snowmobile shots, it all looks convincing, grounded in the real world with physics that understand gravity. But that doesn't mean it follows logic- take an extended chase where Lopez and Cruise head after a man named Tarantula (Jesse Garcia), who has a tattoo of the arachnid. The first issue is that villains will no doubt not only have a visible tattoo, but also be nicknamed after it. But whatever, because the second issue is when Cruise is stabbed in the back, he still gives chase and shows no signs of being impaired. OK sure, maybe he's sooo tough that it hardly fazes him. But while the two men are on foot, she steals a car and moves at pace with them. If I could run as fast as a car, I wouldn't need one.
It's at this point where I realize that I neglected to bring up her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez), who was adopted by another family due to her history with criminals (including being one herself, but why bother bringing it up if the film forgets to follow up on it). Zoe is shown to be your usual teenager, but Lopez trains her with knifes and guns, so you just know that'll come in handy later, but I don't wanna spoil anything. I dunno, none of this matters; this is a fantasy that costs you just your Netflix subscription and an afternoon that you could have spent doing something more useful, like calling your own mother.
