''The Mother'' is a 2023 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

Niki Caro Nikola Jean Caro (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film ''Whale Rider'' was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live action versi ...

with a screenplay by

Misha Green Misha Green (born September 22, 1984, in Sacramento, California) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. She is best known as the showrunner of the supernatural series ''Lovecraft Country'' on HBO and creator and executive producer ...

Andrea Berloff Andrea Berloff (born 1974) is an American screenwriter, actress, director, and producer. Berloff is best known for writing the 2006 Disaster film, disaster Drama (film and television), drama film ''World Trade Center (film), World Trade Center'' ...

and

Peter Craig Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, from a story by Green. The film stars

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

Joseph Fiennes Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (), known as Joseph Fiennes, is an English actor of film, stage, and television. Journalist Zoe Williams observed that "he seemed to be the go-to actor for English cultural history". Fiennes is particul ...

Omari Hardwick Omari Latif Hardwick (born January 9, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring role as James "Ghost" St. Patrick, the protagonist of Starz's ''Power'' and his role as Vanderohe in Zack Snyder's ''Army of the Dead'' (2021). He is also kn ...

, Lucy Paez and

Gael García Bernal Gael García Bernal (; born 30 November 1978) is a Mexican actor and producer. He is best known for his performances in the films '' Bad Education'', '' The Motorcycle Diaries'', ''Amores perros'', ''Y tu mamá también'', ''Babel'', '' Coco'', ...

. ''The Mother'' was released on May 12, 2023, by

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 ...

Plot

An unnamed U.S. military operative, known as "The Mother", brokers an

arms smuggling Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational Criminal Organizations, criminal organizations. The il ...

deal between ex-

SAS SAS or Sas may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers * ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series * Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...

marine Adrian Lovell and

arms dealer The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...

Hector Álvarez. She is also romantically involved with the both and becomes pregnant. After discovering that hey are involved with

child trafficking Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour and exploitation. ...

, she approaches the

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 ...

to be an informant. While The Mother is being interrogated at an FBI safe house by Special Agent Cruise, Lovell attacks the property. Cruise is shot and seriously wounded, and the other FBI agents are killed. The Mother saves Cruise's life and crafts a time-delayed

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

. Lovell confronts her in the bathroom and stabs her belly before getting knocked out from the explosion. After the ordeal, The Mother gives birth to a girl in the hospital. SAIC Eleanor Williams informs The Mother that Lovell's body was not recovered from the safe house and that her baby will be placed with a foster family for her protection. Understanding that her child will never be safe with her, she agrees to waive her parental rights. The Mother visits Cruise, giving him three conditions: the will have a life as ordinary as possible, she'll get photo of her child every birthday, and to call her if child is ever in trouble. The Mother secludes herself in a remote cabin in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

for the next twelve years, until Cruise contacts her to meet up in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Cruise informs her that when the

ATF The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...

busted some of Álvarez's men in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, they found a photo of her child, who was named Zoe, suggesting they're onto her. As Hector's top men kidnap Zoe, the Mother manages to gun down several of them, before escaping the authorities with Cruise. While Cruise thought Zoe's kidnapping was for ransom, The Mother deduces it was done to lure her out of hiding. The two head to

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

to find Zoe's kidnappers, in hopes of uncovering a clue as to her whereabouts. They catch Tarantula, Hector's top luitenant, who reveals that Zoe is being held at Hector's house on "the Plantation". The two infiltrate Hector's home to find Zoe. After rescuing Zoe, The Mother goes back to kill Hector. While escorting Zoe back home, The Mother keeps looking at Zoe, who realizes she is her biological mother. On the way back, The Mother decides to part ways and let Cruise return Zoe to her foster parents. Lovell manages to intercept them, but The Mother arrives to rescue Zoe. Lovell kills Cruise, but Zoe and The Mother escape. Realizing Zoe is not safe if she returns home, The Mother takes Zoe to her Alaskan cabin. At the cabin, The Mother teaches her

survival training Survival training is a theoretical and physical practice where participants aim to survive in the wilderness with as little means as possible. Survival training is used to teach survival skills or as a form of recreational activity in which indivi ...

. The two start to bond but when The Mother realizes Adrian is coming for them, she decides to leave Zoe with Jons, a former army colleague of hers, at his store. Zoe is upset to know she's being abandoned again by her own mother, but Jons encourages Zoe to see her mother through her actions and not her words. After Zoe finds a letter from her mother, explaining everything she has ever done has been for Zoe, she decides to go back to the cabin and help her mother ward off the attackers. Lovell and his men have a final confrontation with the two. The Mother manages to kill all of Lovell’s men and have a final faceoff with him. While The Mother was knocked to the ground, Lovell grabs Zoe and speeds away, but The Mother

snipes Snipes may refer to: * Snipe, a wading bird * Snipes (surname) * ''Snipes'' (film), a 2001 film * ''Snipes'' (video game), a 1983 text-mode networked computer game * Snipes Mountain AVA Snipes Mountain AVA is an American Viticultural Area l ...

and kills him just in time. With Lovell and Álvarez dead, The Mother returns Zoe to her foster family. No longer needing to remain in hiding, The Mother continues to

observe Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. The ...

Zoe from a distance.

Cast

as "The Mother", an unnamed operative and assassin. *

as Adrian Lovell, a former

marine *

as William Cruise, an

agent *

as Héctor Álvarez, an arms dealer * Paul Raci as Jons * Lucy Paez as Zoe, Mother's estranged teenage daughter who was given up for adoption. *

Jesse Garcia Jesse Garcia (born December 14, 1982) is an American actor. Career Garcia starred in the award-winning film ''Quinceañera'', written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer with executive producer Todd Haynes, which won both the ...

as Tarantula * Yvonne Senat Jones as Sonya *

Edie Falco Edith Falco (born July 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Carmela Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), and Nurse Jackie Peyton on the Showtime series ''Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015). She also ...

as Eleanor Williams

Production

In February 2021, it was announced

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing, from a screenplay by

and

, with

set to distribute. In September 2021, it was announced

, Paul Raci and Lucy Paez had joined the cast of the film. In October 2021,

and Yvonne Senat Jones 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 ...

began in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

on October 4, 2021. On January 11, 2022, filming was suspended due to the COVID variant outbreak. In March 2022, filming took place on the Spanish island of

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that co ...

, using the old town of

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auton ...

as a city in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The Gabinete Literario, located there, was used as a casino. The south of the island was also chosen to film a party in a villa.

Reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 ...

reports that 44% of 66 critics' reviews were positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The critcs' consensus reads, "''The Mother'' is a welcome opportunity to see Jennifer Lopez in action hero mode — albeit one that's frustratingly content to coast on genre clichés". 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 ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mother, The 2023 films 2023 action thriller films 2023 crime thriller films 2020s American films 2020s English-language films American action thriller films American crime thriller films English-language Netflix original films Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films about mother–daughter relationships Films directed by Niki Caro Films produced by Roy Lee Films set in Cincinnati Films set in Cuba Films shot in the Canary Islands Films shot in Vancouver Films with screenplays by Andrea Berloff Films with screenplays by Peter Craig Nuyorican Productions films Vertigo Entertainment films