Ava
Jessica Chastain slums it in an action-thriller that gamely attempts to flesh out the clichés.
Killing Ava: Jessica Chastain
It’s almost
a rites-of-passage for a powerful, beautiful Hollywood actress to play an
assassin. From Kathleen Turner to Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie to Charlize
Theron, Jennifer Lawrence to Saoirse Ronan, they’ve all had a go at it. Geena
Davis played a particularly interesting variation in The Long Kiss Goodnight, a killer with amnesia who thinks she’s a small-town
mother and schoolteacher. Geena Davis crops up in a rather different incarnation
in Tate Taylor’s Ava, and is once
again completely in the dark. She has no idea that her own daughter is a
top-level international assassin. The latter is played by Jessica Chastain (of
all people), who seems to have been slumming it of late. Following her auspicious
breakthrough in such high-profile productions as The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and, indeed, Tate Taylor’s The Help, Ms Chastain has recently gone
all genre. Her last two films were Dark
Phoenix and It Chapter Two, the
former a chapter in the X-Men series,
the latter the sequel to a horror remake. And in both films she played
supporting parts. At least in Ava she
gets to play the title role and has a producer’s credit. Or maybe she’s cashing
in a favour to Tate Taylor, who helped her secure her first Oscar nomination. But
isn’t she better than this?
However, few
formulaic action-thrillers start with such a sustained shot of its leading lady’s
face. Ava Faulkner is at the wheel of a car and is busy thinking, along with
applying her lipstick, adjusting her hair, drumming her fingers on the steering
wheel, puffing out her cheeks and, well, just being human. And then she kills
someone. Of course, Ava is more than just an assassin. She’s a daughter, a
sister, an alcoholic, a former drug addict and was once engaged to her sibling’s
fiancé, Michael (Common). In fact, there’s more backstory here than you can
shake a chainstick at. Even the bad guys have backstories: the very, very
wicked Simon (Colin Farrell) has a delightful little daughter, while Ava’s
mentor, the amoral Duke (John Malkovich), can only be described as avuncular. Yet
in spite of Tate Taylor’s attempts to open out the genre, the exposition
remains mechanical and the action scenes exceedingly improbable. “You’re my
sister,” Ava tells her sister at one point, the better to enlighten the viewer.
And at a sisterly dinner, Common is stuck with dialogue that could only have
spilled out of a screenplay. To Ava: “You don’t get to come in here and try to
fix everything. Okay? You don’t get to be that person.”
In spite of Taylor’s
best efforts, his characters remain cyphers. But Ms Chastain is never less than
watchable, although Ava’s drink problem is becoming a cliché of recent movies. And
it’s never a good sign for a thriller when the most suspenseful moment is the
protagonist reaching for the mini-bar.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich,
Common, Geena Davis, Colin Farrell, Jess Weixler, Ioan
Gruffudd, Diana Silvers, Joan Chen, Christopher Domig, Efka Kvaraciejus, Simonne
Stern.
Dir Tate Taylor, Pro Jessica Chastain, Kelly Carmichael, Nicolas Chartier and Dominic
Rustam, Screenplay Matthew Newton, Ph Stephen Goldblatt, Pro Des Molly Hughes, Ed Zach Staenberg, Music Bear McCreary, Costumes
Megan Coates, Jessica Chastain’s Vocal
Coach Joan Washington.
Voltage Pictures/Freckle Films-Netflix.
96 mins. USA. 2020. Rel: 6 December 2020.
Available on Netflix. Cert. 15.