Sweet Girl
A formulaic Netflix thriller is spiced up by a father-and-daughter team like no other.
Ripple effect: Isabela Merced and Jason Momoa
Until the Taliban is reinstated as Hollywood’s villain of choice, Big Pharma is a good substitute for the Russians. Here, BioPrime is even worse than GlaxoSmithKline, putting profit before everything else, even when they have a supposed cure for cancer. And to keep the surface of their corporate pond as tranquil as possible, they are not above bribery and murder to supress any ripples. And Jason Momoa is a big ripple. An unusually large actor with unusually long hair, he plays Ray Cooper, a ‘survival expert’ whose exceptionally beautiful wife Amanda (Adria Arjona) is suffering from a rare type of cancer. But then he’s told that there’s a new genre drug called Spero which, in the final stages of FDA approval, could cure his wife’s illness. But BioPrime delays the affordable drug’s production for reasons best known to them (the profit margin) and Amanda dies shortly afterwards. Ray is inconsolable, as is his exceptionally beautiful daughter, Rachel (Isabela Merced). Of course, Ray’s threat to end the life of BioPrime’s CEO Simon Keeley (Justin Bartha) on air, on CNN, no less, comes back to haunt him. Out of the blue, Ray is contacted by a journalist with some inside news who, being exceptionally nervous, suggests that they meet in public, on the Pittsburgh subway. This doesn’t stop Amo Santos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a hired gun, who knifes both Ray and the journalist, before turning on Rachel…
Isabela Merced is the film’s ace card, a twenty-year-old-actress who is playing an eighteen-year-old who looks sixteen. Merced has recently changed her name from Isabela Moner, but maybe Moner and Momoa was too much of a mouthful, so she has adopted her late grandmother’s surname. It’s a stage name, she assures us (on Instagram), with the Moner remaining in place on her passport. She’s a terrific actress and has brightened up such movies as Sicario 2: Soldado, Instant Family and Dora and the Lost City of Gold. And she’s a bright spot here, too.
If one is going to churn out a Steven Seagal-type potboiler like this, you might as well have a great villain – Big Pharma – and a spiky, pretty accomplice for the Big Ripple. The edgy camerawork and a persuasive score (from Oscar-winner Steven Price) lubricate the emotions nicely until the film, in its final third, pulls the rug out from under the viewer’s feet. This upends a perfectly serviceable thriller which is akin to a favourite slice of pizza with extra spicy toppings suddenly being dropped on the floor. But with a lacklustre title like Sweet Girl, what should one expect?
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jason Momoa, Isabela Merced, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Adria Arjona, Raza Jaffrey, Justin Bartha, Lex Scott Davis, Michael Raymond-James, Amy Brenneman, Reggie Lee.
Dir Brian Andrew Mendoza, Pro Jason Momoa, Brian Andrew Mendoza, Brad Peyton and Jeff Fierson, Screenplay Philip Eisner and Gregg Hurwitz, Ph Barry Ackroyd, Pro Des Andrew Menzies, Ed Mike McCusker and Matt Chessé, Music Steven Price, Costumes Michael Ground and Luca Mosca.
ASAP Entertainment/Pride of Gypsies-Netflix.
109 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 20 August 2021. Cert. 15.
