Average
Summary
The Mother is as generic as they come with little that you’ll remember after the end credits but there are some decent action scenes with a few fights which are nicely choreographed too. J-Lo gives a strong performance trying to be stoic for her daughter and you can see the struggle in her eyes which gives the film some nice heartfelt moments. The villains are forgettable and there isn’t anything new in terms of action so this is hardly up there with the likes of John Wick.
Plot: While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life.
Review: I meant to watch and review this for Mother’s Day but I haven’t had a free moment until today to actually finish the film; Jennifer Lopez stars as an assassin who is forced to come out of hiding when her daughter who she abandoned (to save her life) is in danger.
The Mother isn’t anything new and doesn’t have any surprises or twists so it’s hardly classic action cinema but it’s still an entertaining diversion.
J-Lo clearly worked hard for the movie and her nameless character known only as “Mother” tries to be stoic to protect her daughter from Mother’s former employers. She comes across as cold and aloof towards her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez) but she is just trying to maintain her distance as she doesn’t want to disrupt the girl’s life.
Fate has other plans however, as Adrian (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector (Gael García Bernal) believe Zoe may be their child. Both men are the main villains and are hateful enough if a little underused and underdeveloped (like most villains these days). There isn’t anything you’ll particularly remember about them or this film for that matter.
Lucy Paez makes Zoe sympathetic where she could have easily been annoying but where she is at first quite hostile towards her Mother (and vice versa) their relationship slowly blooms and Zoe begins to understand why Mother is the way she is.
The action is slick with some decent fight scenes and violent kills earning the film its R rating; we get a few real explosions too which is always a plus but there isn’t anything game changing about any aspect of this film. You’ll watch it once and maybe enjoy it but speaking for myself, I have no desire to revisit it again any time in the future; I find that with the majority of Netflix movies where they just lack that rewatchability factor.
Overall, The Mother has some impressively violent action and decent performances; the villains aren’t that memorable and there isn’t anything new this brings to the genre but it’s passable Saturday night entertainment.