By Leonardo Cervantes
The Mother starring renowned megastar Jennifer Lopez is a predictable but enjoyable film. It handles a build-up of revenge and action scenes well. The Mother (played by Jennifer Lopez) is an informant and a skilled contract killer. While recovering from her wounds she gives birth to her child Zoe (played by Lucy Paez) and is forced to give up parental rights. Jennifer Lopez plays her role perfectly as a vengeful mother that waited for the perfect moment to take revenge for her daughter. She might surprise viewers as she plays her role well and has the bloodlust to avenge her daughter.
The constant setting of snow adds to the film as The Mother is able to blend in and camouflage in fur coats in order to get sneak attacks on her enemies. However, the lighting in certain scenes feels far too dark. While it adds to the suspense of guessing what side the enemy will show up from, it also deviates from the action scene as the corners feel too dark and viewers are left watching straight ahead.
The training montages from the film are awesome and build suspense for the action that will ensue. While most action thrillers have training montages it builds toward making the lead character more believable because at least the viewer has seen them work out which makes seeing them as a one-person army feel more believable.
While there are countless fights in dark buildings and cold snowy mountains perhaps the best scene in the film happens at a local park. A full-on shootout happens at the park filled with mothers and kids and turns into a frenzy. While the pandemonia is happening with mothers and kids screaming uncontrollably, Tarantula (Jesse Garcia) kidnaps Zoe. This is in order to bait The Mother to come out of hiding and confront them one on one.
While it’s a slow build to get to the real action scenes the payoff is worth it because the film doesn’t rush to be overly violent. The film allows the viewers to see growth and then that’s when all the action begins. This was a good tactic by the producers as the film didn’t begin overly violent.
The star-studded cast of Jennifer Lopez, Omari Hardwick (Cruise) and Edi Falco (Elanor Williams) wasn’t enough to carry the film over a mediocre script. Each individual is an excellent actor but the predictable story made it to the point that they weren’t able to outshine the plot.
The film isn’t bad, it just feels very tacky and predictable. The biggest problem is that while there are many suspenseful scenes the outcome is always predictable. One of the qualities that makes a movie great is the suspenseful feeling of not knowing what to expect. And The Mother just has little to no surprises. There were many opportunities to deviate from the predictable plot but the producers chose to play it safe and let the obvious happen.
The Mother is rated R and has a runtime of one hour and 55 minutes. The movie is available to watch on Netflix.