The Mother
Jennifer Lopez plays a surprisingly beautiful assassin in Niki Caro’s ridiculous, mechanical action-thriller for Netflix.
Mom’s the word: Jennifer Lopez
First there was The Father, then The Son, and now comes The Mother. Actually, the last-named has little to do with the first two, as it’s another Netflix action-thriller in which the eponymous assassin looks like a supermodel. In this case it’s Jennifer Lopez, who is informed by an FBI superior (Eddie Falco) that she’s served back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has 46 confirmed kills on her record and is accurate to 1,300 metres with an M24 – in case she had forgotten. Or maybe it was for our benefit? A lot is put out there for our benefit, which depletes any chance of nuance in this formulaic thing that feels like it’s been scripted by ChatGPT. Thus, all JLo’s many adversaries are complete incompetents, while those with certain “business interests” pursue JLo across innumerable years and time zones in order to show her how callous and sadistic they are. At the outset, Joseph Fiennes’ Adrian Lovell shoves a knife into her belly to illustrate how much he disapproves of her – which, as she’s nine months’ pregnant, is not nice.
What is so surprising about all this is that it’s directed by the New Zealand-born Niki Caro, who brought us the sublime, multi-award-winning Whale Rider, as well as the accomplished and stirring North Country, among other titles. One can usually judge the calibre of an action-thriller by how loud a punch sounds – here the blows are thunderous – although Caro succeeds better in the later scenes when real human beings are allowed to talk to each other. The plot, particularly the set-up, is ludicrous, such as the very minute that after twelve years of separation, ‘The Mother’ is allowed to view her daughter for the first time – from a distance – and is witness to her kidnap. What are the chances? Luckily, JLo – who is unnamed in the film – has a gun with her and is able to take down some of the kidnappers, but not ‘Tarantula’ (Jesse Garcia), who escapes to Cuba (filmed in the Canary Islands). He is the kind of guy who, when being chased, likes to push children and nuns out of his path, just to show what a bad egg he is.
There is a saying that goes, “Netflix is God’s way of teaching Americans geography” (actually I made that up), so the drone shots are predictably wonderful. The film leaps all over the place, as does JLo, who is good both when she’s killing the bad guys or when she’s attempting to be a mother to Zoe, played by the young Mexican actress Lucy Paez, who is also good. There are decent turns, too, from Omari Hardwick as an FBI agent and Paul Raci (Sound of Metal) as an army vet, although Joseph Fiennes and Gael García Bernal are largely wasted as stock villains. The rest is mind-numbingly formulaic, wildly improbable, very violent and nonsensical. We’ve seen it all before, although there’s just one scene that stands out from the crowd – when JLo gives an unexpected lecture about how everything we eat is born from violence. On tofu: “Half of Paraguay was burned and deforested for soy plantations.” On cheese: “Cows are impregnated just so they can be pulled on all day.” On cashew cheese: “I know a mercenary in the Ivory Coast, said they fought a civil war – over cashews.” Didn’t see that coming.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, Gael García Bernal, Jesse Garcia, Yvonne Senat Jones, Edie Falco.
Dir Niki Caro, Pro Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, Roy Lee, Marc Evans, Miri Yoon and Misha Green, Screenplay Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig, Ph Ben Seresin, Pro Des Jean-François Campeau, Ed David Coulson, Music Germaine Franco, Costumes Bina Daigeler and Jeriana San Juan, Sound Ann Scibelli, Dialect coach Jose Vargas.
Nuyorican Productions/Vertigo Entertainment-Netflix.
115 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 12 May 2023. Cert. 15.
