“Jennifer Lopez’s Performance Steals the Show in Action-Packed Movie ‘The Mother'”

Jennifer Lopez latest movie, “The Mother,” is a high-concept thriller that stars her character as a mother and an assassin, a premise that chances are leave one feeling excited and thoroughly entertained. Unfortunately, the movie offers an experience that is largely forgettable. Written by Misha Green’s, the action movie, which was first conceived in 2017, didn’t quite live up to its billing. This could be because studios played the card of “female empowerment,” creating a sound structure around the movie that left it as a shadow of its potential.

As a result, “The Mother” turned out to be a bland and almost forgettable action flick. Despite the impressive list of Hollywood greats in its creation, the movie falls flat on its face as it tries to be more than it is. Although it is commendable that female-led movies are gaining traction in Hollywood, this trend seems to breed more harm than good.

Most action movies that are fronted by women tend to be generic in nature, failing to capture the spirit of their envisaged premise. In as much as “The Mother” features an all-star cast and a Hollywood A-lister as its star, it ultimately fails to deliver, in part due to its bland storyline and more significantly due to its inability to spark emotions that build intrigue.

The director, Niki Caro, who is no stranger to blockbusters, was at her creative best while directing “The Mother,” creating awe-inspiring scenes that leave her audience breathless. The filmmakers had a challenge creating an emotional connection between the lead character and the rest of the cast, a shortfall that ultimately hurt the film’s emotional connect quality.

Lopez’s character is a superhuman spy/assassin/one-woman army with nary a serious vulnerability, making her character feel forced and unrelatable. “The Mother” also tries to add a little emotion to the storyline by having the lead character look for her 12-year-old daughter, who is in danger. However, it is challenging to care much about this unestablished relationship, which feels underdeveloped and rushed.

“The Mother” trots out a mix of other stories that include adoption, the “who’s your daddy?” storyline, and plain old violence. The movie tries, unsuccessfully, to meld all of these disparate components into one uniform narrative, a shortfall that finally relegate it to a forgettable footnote.

It is evident that Lopez and her crew are pushing the bounds with each film, keen to ensure that Hollywood does not place societal or industry-imposed limits on their endeavors. They are here to challenge gender boundaries, genre preference lines, and general Hollywood traditions that do not elevate the cause of a multicultural world.

“The Mother” is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “violence, some language and brief drug use.” It runs for 115 minutes and is a Netflix release streaming from Friday.