The Mother (Jennifer Lopez, Netflix, 2023)

The Mother is a high-octane action-thriller in which Jennifer Lopez plays an ex-military assassin who comes out of hiding in Alaska to protect the daughter she has only known from a distance.

The movie is directed by Niki Caro, who is known for her Oscar-nominated arthouse gem Whale Rider (2002), the Jessica Chastain-starrer The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) and, most recently, the live-action remake of Mulan (2020).

It is based on a story by Mischa Green and written by Green (creator of Lovecraft Country), Peter Craig (The Batman), and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton). 

So there is a lot of talent involved, not to mention that, apart from Lopez, the movie also stars two well-known leading men in Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal. 

The Mother wants to be a movie in the vein of Luc Besson’s classic Leon: The Professional, in which Jean Reno takes Natalie Portman under his wing and teaches her to become a professional hit woman.

This is exactly my cup of tea, but to be fair the movie itself is a bit of a mixed bag. Lopez is great as The Mother - her name is never mentioned - and she alone is worth pressing ‘play’ for. The story, however, is pretty generic and not really worth getting into, as that would spoil most of the exciting but somewhat limited pleasures it has to offer.

The money is on the screen and the action scenes are convincing enough. The movie hops around from location (Alaska) to location (Cuba) and back, but co-star Fiennes mostly looks bored and Bernal has a much smaller role than you would expect.

The Mother’s main companion is her FBI-handler Cruise (Omari Hardwick), who proves himself to be a rugged good man.

Lopez also works well with Lucy Paez, who plays Zoe as a twelve year old, and that mother-daughter relationship makes the whole enterprise worth watching.

The Mother manages to be solid, uneven, exhilarating and predictable at the same time, which is some feat unto itself. It works better as a star vehicle than as an ensemble picture and frankly speaking, a superstar like Jennifer Lopez deserves better material than this formulaic but effective thriller.

Here’s the trailer: