Ana Carballosa/Netflix
It has been a hot minute since Jennifer Lopez took up her firearms for a proper action flick. No, Shotgun Wedding doesn’t count, as it leaned on its comedic side, and neither does Hustlers, despite it being more action-packed than the last 35 Fast and the Furious movies. Lopez hasn’t led a true action movie since 2013’s Parker, but even before she was outacting Jason Statham at every turn, Lopez had already begun to favor the simpler pleasures of romantic comedies over high-octane stunts.
But the skies have opened, and like manna from heaven rains down The Mother, Lopez’s first action movie in a decade—and one that is eerily similar to her 2002 classic, Enough. Over 20 years have passed since Enough was released, and Lopez hasn’t lost a single bit of the spark that electrified her fiercely devoted mother into a raging, glorious flame. The Mother finds Lopez in a comparable predicament, having to go to extreme means to protect her daughter and save both of their lives.
Only this time, Lopez is no amateur fighter, mustering the courage to beat back against her abuser. In The Mother, Lopez plays an Army sniper turned deadly contract assassin, who gives up a life of lethality when she discovers she’s pregnant, to the chagrin of her equally deadly partners. In order to ensure the safety of her unborn child, the Mother (who remains nameless in the film) signs away her parental rights and gives up the identities of her former collaborators to the FBI, in exchange for her child’s lifelong, monitored security. But with time, comes a greater hunger for psychotic revenge, leaving mother and daughter in the crosshairs of ruthless violence.