Netflix subscribers, Sunday, on Mother’s Day, don’t make the mistake of watching The Mother thinking it might please the mom in your home or as a tribute to yours.
The film by Niki Caro (Mulan, North Country) is very bad, but not only. It is unnecessarily violent, long, although it is less than two hours long, and, above all, conveys a twisted message about a mother’s unconditional love for her child. It seems intended for those who idealize weapons to protect their family.
The mother – she has no name –, played by Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, out of sight), was a sniper for the United States Army. Not wanting to return home and lead a quiet life after her service, she establishes a link between her ex-general in Afghanistan, Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes), and the arms dealer Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal), met in Guantanamo.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NETFLIX
If you are a fan of the brilliant Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, know that we see him in a scene and a half.
While the mother is now pregnant, she discovers that her two associates are also engaged in child trafficking. She alerts the FBI, but is attacked by Lovell and his men during her interrogation by the police department. Her baby is spared, but she must abandon him in order to keep him away from danger. She takes refuge in Alaska where she remains isolated until the day her enemies find her daughter, who is now 12 years old.
Misha Green’s basic idea (the series Lovecraft Country And Underground) had some potential. However, she and her co-writers Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig drained all the love from their pages and replaced it with violence.
The mother protects her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez) because it is her responsibility, her mission. When they spend time together for the first time, while they are in exile, the mother remains closed and ignores the distress of her child. Rather than comforting her, explaining her past, telling her the truth, she trains her to survive and kill. The two come across a wolf and her cubs a few times in the forest. We seem to want to make a metaphor of it, but precisely, we are not animals!
The movie is full of nasty moments and cliches, including a free shot of J.Lo’s butt. She looks as miserable in the role as her husband Ben Affleck does in paparazzi photos.
Among the positive points, there is the pursuit of snowmobiles, then all the work of the director of photography Ben Seresin and the Quebec production designer Jean-François Campeau.
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The Mother (VF: The mother)
Niki Caro
With Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez
1:57 a.m.
On Netflix