The Mother Movie Review: Lopez’s performance isn’t enough to overshadow this cliché-ridden action thriller

Jennifer Lopez has been one of those rare pop stars who has managed to hold her own in film. If there’s one thing that’s been consistent about her acting over the decades, it’s her range. Her body of work speaks volumes for how she views cinematic success. I last saw her in Hustlers, an impressive title she headlined. Lopez invariably commits to her characters, not shying away from venturing into challenging territory. That is perhaps the most admirable thing of all. Unfortunately, all the ability in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you’ve chosen a subpar script. She manages to keep you engaged for some part of The Mother with her own individual performance, but it only goes so far. A bland, done-to-death action thriller narrative, The Mother pulls out every wayside cliché in the book. Barely anything interesting or noteworthy unfolds in its two hours. A montage of disconnected action and combat sequences are splashed across the screen intermittently, more because they have to be there and less because they make complete sense.

Director – Niki Caro

Cast – Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Gael García Bernal, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick  

Streaming On – Netflix

A top-level US military markswoman with years of experience in conflict zones is lured to the dark side. The men she gets herself entangled with are in the business of selling to the highest bidder and aren’t quite the forgive-and-forget type (how very original!). Double-cross these chaps and you’re pretty much toast. Lopez’s eponymous lead character has a sudden crisis of conscience when she discovers that the aforementioned illegal arms dealers dabble in the world of human trafficking too. Naïve much? And I pose this question to the writers, first and foremost. But I digress. The ex-veteran (capable of sniping targets from 1,300 metres) goes to the FBI for a tell-all, risk-all session. Here’s where our unsuspecting audience finds out that she is with child. Whose it is, is left to conjecture (“does it matter?” is her stock response). Romantically linked to both of the story’s antagonists, the father is purportedly one of them. While being questioned in a safe house, she lets the FBI know about the consequences that await them. All in the “snitches get stitches, betrayal – bad, loyalty – good” mould. Thanks for that insight, Niki Caro & Co! Spectacular comebacks such as “don’t tell us how to do our job, lady” and “we run this show, not you” (I paraphrase, but you get the gist) flash here and there. And, as luck would have it, there’s an attack on the premises, with all but one agent and The Mother getting out of it alive. The FBI offers her a deal: put the baby up for adoption and disappear. She agrees, reluctantly. William Cruise (Omari Hardwick), the agent whose life she saved during the attack, promises to keep her updated on the progress of the child. She retreats to the Alaskan wilderness and starts life anew.

Through its cliché-ridden, disconnected and below-par storyline, only the parts involving the proverbial mother and her teenage daughter (practically, a stranger) are worth it. The poor writing, notwithstanding, Lopez’s character manages to pull off that most difficult job - of being there to protect her daughter, wrestle with all the maternal guilt, and keep the child at an emotional distance for her own safety - all in a bid to return her to her true, adoptive parents, when the time is right. Lucy Paez’s twelve-year-old Zoe matches Jennifer Lopez frame for frame in all the awkward encounters between the two. Being the kid of an assassin isn’t easy, surely, and most of her questions (including whether she is, in fact, her biological mother) go unanswered. Zoe’s rebelliousness and pent-up resentment of the years are given credence thanks to a realistic performance from young Paez. Take these few sequences away and you’re left with a whole lot of nonsense. Scenes jump without continuity or common sense. Lopez flits in and out of destinations on a whim, far from being detected. We get that she’s trained in military intelligence and whatnot but this is plain ridiculous. No heed is paid to basic logistics. It’s almost like she conjures a place in her head, and the next thing, she’s there – Ohio, Alaska, Cuba, place does not matter. The most disappointing aspect of the film is how the villains are sketched; caricatures with an evil glint in their eye and laughably menacing lines on their lips. When you have actors of the stature of Joseph Fiennes and Gael García Bernal portraying unflattering, campy cliches, it’s just depressing. Also, giving the latter merely two or three scenes is absurd.

Unoriginal and prone to wild exaggeration, The Mother fails on the count of its writing and execution. A good Lopez performance (in a poor script) with worthy contributions from Paez and Hardwick isn’t enough to save the film. Going into it, I was expecting something along the lines of Hanna. But all I got was Lou.