Jennifer Lopez Brings Mama Bear Vigilante Vibes to the Mother

Did you know that the Latino community actually celebrates Mother’s Day on May 10th no matter what?  It’s a little know fact I discovered on my way to the premiere.  Having said that, if you have read read my reviews you know that I love me some Jennifer Lopez and watching her in The Mother is no different.

Lopez is fully embracing her Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie action mode taking on the role of a Mom assassin who comes out of hiding to protect her one and only daughter all while fleeing from dangerous assailants.  While this film left me with vibes of a previous Lopez film “Enough,”  where Lopez fights against an abusive husband in order to to protect her daughter mixed with some “Out of Sight” action, it’s the chemistry between her and Lucy Paez that really makes this film work. Paez holds her own while simultaneously breaking your heart every single time she hits the screen

Niki Caro’s direction is an action packed thrill ride and she waste no time getting into the heart of the matter right from the first frame.  Performances with Gael García Bernal, Joseph Fiennes, Paul Raci (grossly underused in my opinion) and Omari Hardwick feel more like cameos in a film that is mostly formulaic in tone,  However, scenes shot in the Alaskan terrain coupled with how this mother daughter tale unfolds make this film an edge of the seat action adventure.

Mother and daughter relationships are complicated at best, but screenwriter Misha Green finds a way to explore the vulnerable complexity of it all in the most visceral way leaving audiences rooting for this duo to succeed despite all the odds. But, it is the parallel of a pack of wolves and how it’s mother will protect her babies that tells you everything you need to know.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, The Mother is streaming on Netflix right now.