The Mother

Directed by Niki Caro, The Mother follows Jennifer Lopez’s title character as she’s forced to come out of hiding after the daughter (Lucy Paez’s Zoe) she gave up for adoption is threatened. Filmmaker Caro, armed with Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig’s screenplay, delivers a decidedly erratic piece of work that fares best in its exciting, action-packed opening stretch, as the movie, which kicks off with a fairly stirring pre-credits sequence, boasts a first half that’s been suffused with an impressive number of engrossing sequences and set-pieces – including a terrific interlude wherein the protagonist almost single-handedly takes out an entire house full of armed goons. And while the better-than-expected atmosphere is heightened by Lopez’s compelling and often hypnotic turn as the tough-as-nails central character, The Mother‘s entertaining atmosphere is diminished substantially by a midsection that’s focused almost entirely on the dull, interminable survivalist exploits of Lopez and Paez’s respective figures – which ensures that the film peters out substantially long before it arrives at its admittedly potent finale. The end result is a woefully hit-and-miss thriller that could (and should) have been so much better, with the palpably overlong running time (ie that entire second act would’ve worked a whole lot better in the context of a brief montage sequence) the primary cause for The Mother‘s disappointing downfall.

** out of ****