At the center of the story is “a mother” whose real name we do not know. This woman is being questioned by the FBI regarding an illicit arms trade and her suspicious ties to Hector Alvarez, a Cuban smuggler, and her partner Adrian Lovell, a corrupt ex-SAS soldier. During the interrogation, Adrian’s men begin decimating the FBI agents, then break into the building. Only the protagonist, who is given an emergency caesarean, and agent William Cruise will come out alive from this blitz. However, despite the baby being born healthy, the authorities decide to remove the protagonist from custody for safety reasons. Flash forward 12 years, the protagonist is in her Alaskan cabin when she learns from Agent Cruise that the two gangsters have located and intend to kidnap her daughter; Will our protagonist be able to protect her?
A titanic J.Lo in an action film who, thanks to the explosiveness of her action scenes, manages to overcome the two-dimensionality of her characterization.
“You don’t have to pay attention to what a woman like that says, but to the things she does.” This joke, which I would dare to define as exegetical, fully sums up the meaning of the film. Few words and many facts, and facts obviously mean shootings, explosions and car chases, so on and so forth. The nerve center of the film is clearly Jennifer Lopez, who gives us a silent, ataraxic and titanic performance, a sort of female Daniel Craig. This choice may not be prodigal in expressiveness and it certainly won’t lead the viewer to empathy and emotional recognition, but it is certainly functional to a narrative of this type. The action scenes, without slipping into Bollywood baroqueism, are a good compromise between pyrotechnics, entertainment and visual violence.
The plot, perhaps exaggeratedly varied, unfolds all in all in a precise manner, except for the block set in Alaska which should deepen the mother-daughter relationship-conflict. On the contrary, this chapter does not add anything to the narrative and does not even help to expand the relationship and emotional framework of the characters in the field, in short, it constitutes a bit of a setback with respect to the flow of the narrative. However, the rhythm is then somehow resumed, which leads us to a heart-pounding showdown. Finally, I applaud the screenwriters for writing the ending, which succeeds in the complicated task of not slipping into pathos and not distorting the essence of the characters.
There is, all in all, little to say even on the more purely visual aspect, which without setting itself too transcendental objectives fully satisfies the narrative needs, in short, it is completely functional to the plot or action. Perhaps a little too insistent and pedantic is the use of smoky and tarnished subjectives.
In conclusion, The Mother is a rather simple film, which certainly will not lend itself to deep reflections, complex readings and which does not make formal research its hallmark. However, overall, it cannot be denied that it fails to profitably fulfill the set objectives, making it enjoyable and entertaining.