The Mother Netflix Review

Jennifer Lopez is (dun dun daanh) The Mother

Let me start off with this review by saying that I really like and respect Jennifer Lopez for her dedication and endurance as a performer. She has always seemed to be the underdog, for some reason. I think that it is probably due to her not actually having that much talent as a singer or actress but having the looks and ambition to land the gigs as if she did.

Don’t get me wrong, she is gorgeous, Latina (which I love), and she still carries off that Bronx tough girl persona well even now, decades after she left all that behind her.

But the question in this case is: can she convincingly carry off an action drama? Well, she tries her heart out; that is clear throughout the film, but as per usual with JLo in a dramatic role, she falls short, as does the rest of the film.

I think that it is also important to distinguish in this film between action acting and acting-acting. On the first count, JLo hits it out of the park, and if the storyline had been about a more superficial topic, like stealing cars or robbing a bank, then yes, she would have done a fabulous job. However, the content is deeper than that, and in that regard, the dramatic side of the acting needs to be elevated, which it was not.

The Mother Netflix Overall Review

After getting off to an engaging start, The Mother is immediately trapped by its desire for glamour over grit, in spite of the superhuman acts of heroism.

Part of the reason for this would be that the storyline itself seems farfetched and confusing. Two bad guys (not the usual one) are after the Mother in the film and subsequently her daughter in a mutually exclusive but common desire to seek retribution upon the mother for having the audacity to dob their arms and people smuggling operations into the Feds.

Of course, throughout, the baddies tried to provide substance as to where their motivation came from for reaping revenge in such a manner, but they never really managed to provide a convincing reason as to why they were so hellbent on her destruction. I mean, yeah, she betrayed them, but they were smuggling children in shipping containers, so it isn’t far-fetched to think that someone would have a problem with that. It just seems like weak grounds to go on a 12 year long killing rampage, in my opinion.

Notwithstanding, I am always a little bit disappointed when I see JLo attempt real dramatic acting because it simply isn’t in her sphere of capabilities.

I recall that when watching her in Hustlers, the whole film appeared to feel like she was in an extended version of a music video. In that film, too, her character made choices that were simply unrealistic and unbelievable. I find her acting is always self conscious and lacks the necessary authenticity to really engage a viewer and draw them into a world of suspended reality where she really is the character she is portraying. She can never cross the final frontier from pretender to actress, and this is true again, unfortunately for The Mother.

Having said that, this insincerity and music-videoeeque style were actually the perfect combination to make her previous film, Shotgun Wedding, a hit in my mind.

In that film, the character she was portraying wasn’t meant to be deep or complex, she was a pretty, girly grown woman who was trying to get married in a location wedding with some tough girl antics thrown in. In addition, she was supported by an all star cast, which Lopez desperately needs to carry a film off with ease. Furthermore, Shotgun Wedding was, to some extent, slapstick and had a humorous catastrophic component to it, which made it that much more engaging when the characters were mostly superficial and transparent. In that instance, it was a value add.

Details of the The Mother Netflix Review

So to get into a little more detail of the The Mother Netflix Film Review, as was the case with Hustlers (aforementioned stripper film), I think that once you’ve seen the trailer you don’t really need to bother watching the whole film. In fact, if you just read the synopsis of the film that would probably be enough for you to mentally flesh out the remainder of the scenes yourself.

Honestly, that fact isn’t JLo’s fault at all. It seems that the director and producers seem to also want to skew their roles in the production of the film so that even the stupidest of audience members doesn’t feel left behind in the proceedings. Every little ‘clue’ left for the viewer to connect the dots is painstakingly explicit which is not a hallmark of interesting viewing.

Furthermore, the story is heavily plot driven, as are all of JLos movies, with not only the Mother coming off as two dimensional but the remainder of the cast were particularly stereotyped. The baddies had tattoos, they took cocaine, they mostly spoke spanish, they had no empathy and they were relentless. Jennifer’s character, however, was at one with nature, revered mothers and motherly things (the wolf) and was a survivor against the odds in life all while being drop dead georgus.

In fact, so much attention was placed on how “good” things looked, as opposed to their authenticity and their humanness, that it entirely overshadowed the film making it appear unrealistic and unbelievable. The essential veil between this world and that was never lifted, leaving the audience at a distance and not part of that world. It was almost like an prolonged opportunity for product placement.

Don’t get me wrong I love Jenniefer Lopez. I follow her on Instagram, which let’s be honest is the nicest thing you can do for someone you don’t actually know these days, as it translates to opportunities. I am also impressed by her ability to go though men like they are hot breakfasts, but I am genuinely happy for her that she has re-found Ben and become again, Bennifer.

When thinking about what I really felt about the film for The Mother Netflix Review, I really felt for her that she is trying to ascend to a level of acting capability that simply isn’t in her reach. And horrifically, producers and directors presumably keep telling her that she has done a great job, which simply isn’t fair because for her, she has. But in the scheme of things, she is jut pretty and will sell tickets – for a while at least. The issue is that she is too obsessed with looking good and not obsessed enough with doing an authentic job.

I mean, honestly, if someone has been on the run and living in a shack in the God-forsaken woods for over a decade aren’t they entitled to look just a little bit like shit? Hair a mess, dirty calloused hands, a face that shows the signs of a hard life? But JLo walks out as if she has stepped of the red carpet and it simply isn’t credible.

Conclusion: The Mother Netflix Film Review

The odd thing is that I would actually recommend you do watch The Mother on Netflix, especially if you are interested in film, acting, directing, editing and the movie industry more broadly. It is always helpful to watch bad stories and badly made movies so that you have a very firm idea of what not to do.

Regarding JLo’s future acting career, and of course there will be one with the following that she has on social media, I would hope to see her stick to all-star cast comedies that are consistent with her persona and image. I can really buy into her having a diva episode, seeing her romantic life in turmoil and listening to her abuse people in Spanish – I think she really does all that stuff in real life. On this point, I would liken her to Jennifer Aniston as an actress. After Friends, she tried a variety of different roles but none suited her as well as the hair flipping, self-induced crisis, pretty girl light-hearted comedy flick to please a crowd.

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