''Sweet Girl'' is a 2021 American

action thriller Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include lif ...

film directed by Brian Andrew Mendoza in his feature directorial debut and written by Philip Eisner and

Gregg Hurwitz Gregg Andrew Hurwitz is an American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book writer. Most of his novels are in the thriller fiction genre. His script writing work includes a film adaptation of his book '' Orphan X'', a TV adaptation of Joby Warri ...

. The film stars

Jason Momoa Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...

Isabela Merced Isabela Yolanda Moner (born July 10, 2001), known professionally as Isabela Merced since 2019, is an American actress and singer. She played the lead role of CJ Martin on the Nickelodeon television series '' 100 Things to Do Before High School'' ...

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Manuel García-Rulfo Lapuente (born February 25, 1981) known professionally as Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, is a Mexican actor and model. He is best known for roles in films such as '' Cake'' and '' Bless Me, Ultima'', as well as the television program ...

Adria Arjona Adria Arjona Torres (born April 25, 1992) is an actress based in the United States. She played Dorothy Gale in the Oz book adaptation ''Emerald City'' (2017), Anathema Device in the TV adaptation of ''Good Omens'' (2019), and Bix Caleen in '' ...

Raza Jaffrey Raza Jaffrey (born 28 May 1973) is a British actor and singer, who starred as Neal Hudson on the CBS TV medical drama '' Code Black''. He is best known for playing Zafar Younis on the BBC One spy drama series '' Spooks''. In 2014, he played ...

Justin Bartha Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor, known for his roles as Riley Poole in the ''National Treasure'' film series, Doug Billings in ''The Hangover'' trilogy, and David Sawyer in the NBC comedy series '' The New Normal''. ...

, Lex Scott Davis,

Michael Raymond-James Michael Raymond-James (born Michael Weverstad; December 24, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for playing René Lenier in the first season of the HBO series ''True Blood'', Britt Pollack on the FX series ''Terriers'', Neal Cassidy/B ...

and Amy Brenneman. ''Sweet Girl'' was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on August 20, 2021, and received negative reviews from critics for its clichéd story and wasted potential, but its stunts were positively noted. Netflix announced in October 2021 that 68 million accounts had watched at least 2-minutes of the film within 28 days of release.

Plot

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, a woman named Amanda Cooper falls ill with a rare form of cancer. Her husband, the survival expert Ray Cooper, is told that a potentially life-saving drug for Amanda was pulled off the market days before her treatment was set to begin, due to BioPrime CEO Simon Keeley paying the manufacturer to delay production. Watching Keeley on a live debate with Congresswoman Diana Morgan, Ray calls in and threatens Keeley, saying if he doesn't reverse his decision, he'll kill him. Keeley doesn't take the threat seriously and Amanda passes away soon after, devastating Ray and their daughter, Rachel. Six months later, Ray receives a call from a journalist, Martin Bennett, who tells him that he has evidence of criminal activity committed by BioPrime. They meet on a subway, unknowingly followed by Rachel and a hitman named Santos. Bennett explains that BioPrime has been bribing anyone who questions their dirty deeds, but before he can share his information, Santos stabs him dead. As the train stops at a station, Santos stabs Ray and knocks out Rachel, leaving them both on the platform to die. Two years later, Ray has been obsessively tracking Keeley's movements. Ray poses as a waiter to infiltrate BioPrime's charity auction so he can interrogate Keeley. Keeley says he knows nothing and tells him to go after BioPrime's chairman, Vinod Shah. After a brutal fight that leaves one of Keeley's bodyguards dead, Ray strangles him to death with a plastic bag. Ray then gets Rachel and they hide in a motel outside of town. Rachel, concerned that her father has gone too far, contacts

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Agent Sarah Meeker and tries to convince her to look into BioPrime. The next morning, two mercenaries break into the motel and Ray kills them both, resulting in further tension between him and Rachel. Ray plans to go after Shah and lets Rachel help him trap Shah. Ray tries to interrogate him, but Shah refuses to talk and is soon killed by Santos. Ray and Rachel meet with Santos in a diner, and after Santos admits that he finds himself sympathetic to Ray's cause, he reveals that Morgan is his real employer. He also tells Rachel that they will meet again soon. Returning to the city, Ray is ambushed by the FBI and flees to the roof of

PNC Park PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). It was opened during the 2001 MLB season, after the controlled implosion of the Pira ...

. As Meeker tries to talk him down, it's revealed that "Ray" is actually Rachel. Ray died from his wounds at the subway and Rachel, suffering from

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

and

dissociative identity disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...

, devoted herself to finishing his quest for vengeance. She jumps into the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

, but gets knocked unconscious and put in an ambulance. After breaking free and crashing the vehicle, she locates Morgan's campaign office, where Santos is waiting. Despite him initially managing to subdue her by strangling and drowning her, Rachel is able to regain her strength and stabs Santos to death. She confronts Morgan and secretly records her admitting she was bribed by BioPrime for government contracts and that she ordered the hit on Bennett and Ray. Rachel flees and sends the recording to the FBI. In the aftermath, Morgan is arrested for her crimes, while Rachel obtains a fake passport, exchanges her money for

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

, and boards a plane to an uncertain future.

Cast

as Ray Cooper *

as Rachel Cooper ** Milena Rivero as young Rachel Cooper *

as Amos Santos * Amy Brenneman as Diana Morgan *

as Amanda Cooper *

as Simon Keeley *

as Vinod Shah * Lex Scott Davis as FBI Agent Sarah Meeker *

as FBI Agent John Rothman *

Dominic Fumusa Dominic Fumusa (; born September 13, 1969) is an American stage and screen actor known for starring in the Showtime comedy-drama series ''Nurse Jackie''. Early life Fumusa was born and raised in Dane County, Wisconsin to a large family as one ...

as Sam Walker * Nelson Franklin as Martin Bennett * Will Blagrove as Detective Alvarez *

Katy O'Brian Katy M. O'Brian (born February 12, 1989) is an American actress, writer, and martial artist. She is best known for her roles as Jentorra in '' Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'', George in Syfy's zombie show ''Z Nation'', Major Sarah Grey in ...

as TV Host * Brian Howe as Pete Micelli * Reggie Lee as Dr. Wu

Production

In July 2019, it was announced

had joined the cast of the film, with Brian Andrew Mendoza directing from a screenplay by Philip Eisner,

and

Will Staples Will Staples is an American screenwriter, producer, and novelist. He is best known for his work on the video game ''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'', the films ''Without Remorse (film), Without Remorse'' and ''Sweet Girl (film), Sweet Girl'', the ...

, Momoa will also serve as a producer on the film, with

distributing. In October 2019,

joined the cast of the film. In December 2019,

, Lex Scott Davis,

, Brian Howe, Nelson Franklin, and Reggie Lee joined the cast of the film.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

commenced on November 11, 2019 in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and wrapped on February 11, 2020.

Release

It was released on August 20, 2021 on Netflix.

Reception

On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 22% based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Burdened with action clichés and tripped up by a late plot twist, ''Sweet Girl'' wastes a potentially resonant story and some solid work from its well-matched leads." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 10731768 2021 action thriller films 2021 directorial debut films 2020s English-language films American films about revenge American action thriller films Films about dissociative identity disorder English-language Netflix original films Films about father–daughter relationships Films about cancer Films scored by Steven Price Films set in Pittsburgh Films shot in Pittsburgh 2020s American films