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The “movie star,” that mysterious creature whose blinding charisma pulls everyone into its irresistible orbit, is becoming an endangered species. That makes Jennifer Lopez —a movie star par excellence —the onscreen equivalent of a majestic snow leopard. Lopez can easily carry a film on her own, and her latest project, “The Mother,” is lucky to have her.

That’s not to say that the latest film from director Niki Caro (“Mulan”) and a screenwriting team led by “Underground” creator Misha Green would totally sink without its star. Like most Netflix movies, “The Mother” would be a perfectly serviceable thing to have on in the background while you tidied the living room or answered emails on your phone. The spy-movie setup is generic enough to follow while doing something else, and the villains’ motivations are only as specific as the plot needs them to be, which is to say, not very specific at all.

“The Mother” was screened for critics in theaters, where the immersive setup makes the paint-by-numbers portions of the plot really stick out. A handful of odd stylistic choices also attract attention in this format: A recurring visual motif of wide-angle shots with blurred edges; odd, jumpy edits seem to compensate for a lack of coverage on set.

But the big screen also provides a bigger canvas for the film’s picturesque locations, like wild Tlingit Bay, Alaska, the sweltering streets of Havana—and, uh, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Every spy needs a place to hide out.) More importantly, it’s also more real estate for Lopez’s face.

For the most part, that billion-dollar mug is set into an expression of grim determination in “The Mother,” which opens with an unnamed FBI informant (Lopez) and her handler Cruise ( Omari Hardwick ) barely escaping from a bloody attack on an FBI safe house in suburban Indiana. The informant soon becomes The Mother, as the pregnant ex-spy gives birth to a baby girl while in the hospital recovering from her wounds. She has two options: Either escape with the infant and stay on the run forever or sign over her parental rights so her daughter can have a normal life. She chooses the latter.

She never signs away her emotional commitment, however. And she continues to watch expectantly from the sidelines, waiting for the day when her past will also shape young Zoe’s ( Lucy Paez ) life. And indeed, just after Zoe’s 12th birthday, The Mother’s friend and confidant, Jons ( Paul Raci ), comes by her isolated Alaskan lakeside cabin with a message: Zoe is in danger. It’s go time.

As with her celebrated turn as a pole dancer in “ Hustlers ,” much of the excitement in “The Mother” is watching Lopez in motion. She swings a knife in hand-to-hand combat. She jumps across the roofs of cars in an urban foot chase. Even the subtle movement of loading and cocking a sniper rifle while lying belly-down on a rooftop is thrilling when she does it. Lopez translates her background as a dancer into gritty action choreography with the ease of a seasoned professional.

The film shifts gears about halfway in, as Zoe and her mother retreat to Mom’s cabin for a hybrid bonding session and wilderness survival course leading up to the fiery action finale. “The Mother” is arguably too long at 115 minutes, but it’s difficult to say which scenes, in particular, could have been cut; in its quieter moments, both Lopez and her young co-star Paez give convincing performances as the gruff mentor and pouty student.

If anything, the film could have used more of these moments, which feel real and tangible compared to the cardboard cut-out bad guys played by Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal. Either of these men, we’re told, could be Zoe’s father, and it’s their obsession with The Mother that drives the rest of the narrative. Get in line, fellas.

On Netflix now.

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of The A.V. Club from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and RogerEbert.com.

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Film credits.

The Mother (2023)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief drug use.

115 minutes

Jennifer Lopez as Mother

Joseph Fiennes as Adrian

Omari Hardwick as Cruise

Gael García Bernal as Hector

Paul Raci as Jons

Lucy Paez as Zoe

Writer (story)

Misha Green
Andrea Berloff
Peter Craig

Cinematographer

Ben Seresin
David Coulson
Germaine Franco

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‘The Mother’ Review: Are You My Sniper?

At the heart of this action-thriller, an expert killer, played by Jennifer Lopez, must rescue her daughter at all costs.

Share full article

Jennifer Lopez, in a dark parka, looks toward the camera. Behind her is a snowy forest.

By Lisa Kennedy

A movie called “The Mother” is sure to have a lot of symbolism and this action-thriller, starring Jennifer Lopez as a trained killer who must protect the daughter she gave up, has plenty.

In the opening scenes, Lopez’s character, known only as the Mother, is interrogated by F.B.I. agents who are trying to get information on two arms dealers she has worked, and slept, with. Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) is respectful. The other agent (Link Baker), not so much — and tells her so with a hectoring monologue. (One of the film’s guilty pleasures becomes anticipating when a mansplainer will get hushed.)

In Niki Caro’s fast-paced film, Agent Cruise assures the Mother she’s safe. “No I’m not,” she says. Guess who’s right? Mayhem ensues and, in an act, stunning for its swift violence, we learn the Mother is pregnant. The newborn, Zoe, is placed with a loving family, and the Mother retreats to Alaska where the fellow soldier Jons (Paul Raci) has her back.

This arrangement has kept the Mother and child safe for 12 years when Agent Cruise reaches out with news that Zoe (Lucy Paez) has been found by the Mother’s former partners: Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal). Lovell is a nasty-smooth piece of work. As Alvarez, Bernal basks in some candlelit cruelty when the action shifts to Cuba.

What kind of resistance will the men encounter? Lovell trained the Mother as a sniper in Afghanistan. She also knows how to twist a blade.

They shouldn’t fool with the Mother’s nature. Apart from some deadpan exchanges between the Mother and Zoe, Lopez plays the role fierce. Even so, it isn’t always clear which gestures in the film should be taken seriously, and which make sport of the genre’s masculine posturing while offering an allegory about a birth mother’s sacrifice.

The Mother Rated R for gun and knife violence, some language and brief drug use. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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The Mother Reviews

Niki Caro’s tale of an assassin coming out of retirement to keep her daughter out of the crosshairs of some nasty people is the best kind of lean, mean fighting machine

Full Review | Aug 27, 2023

Jennifer Lopez makes, I think, a pretty good action star... This is sort of a generic action-flick that you may watch and forget about it about three minutes after seeing it.

Full Review | Original Score: 5.5/10 | Jul 24, 2023

Lopez is fit enough to handle the action scenes, but she just can’t sell the ruthlessness of the character. Apparently, it took no less than three writers to come up with this clichéd drivel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 6, 2023

An exceptionally strong, emotionally-driven action-thriller...Directed at a cracking pace and with exceptional action-movie instincts by Niki Caro (Whale Rider; Mulan) [it's] a way-above-average thriller, with J.Lo at her finest.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 3, 2023

Maybe it is the repetitive middle or the structure of the movie, but it feels like it could have been paced more quickly and amped up the energy a little bit. I enjoyed this and would not be opposed to seeing Jennifer Lopez take on more roles like this.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 2, 2023

The Mother boasts an impressively weighty emotional core that ensures it hits hard when it needs to.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023

With way too many flaws, a predictable plot, and generic and poorly developed villains, The Mother is an emotionless story and a waste of an action film. Unless you're a huge fan of J-Lo, I'd highly recommend skipping this one.

Full Review | May 26, 2023

The utterly predictable script suffers from a total lack of character development; the execution is ludicrous since JLo's hair and makeup are always flawless, perhaps because her expressionless face looks perpetually frozen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 26, 2023

[This] over-familiar actioner is forgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 24, 2023

What’s really depressing is the name behind the camera. “The Mother” was directed by Niki Caro, whose earliest efforts (Whale Rider, North Country) suggested a major talent in humanist cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | May 24, 2023

The no-nonsense Lopez holds the standard issue together and the action, as directed by Niki Caro, clicks by with the rapid-fire confidence of Lopez’s mom on the trigger.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 24, 2023

The best modern iterations of this kind of movie are The Long Kiss Goodnight and Aliens. I wonder if my overall fatigue with the genre isn't a product of my searching for those highs again in the intervening, largely disappointing decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 24, 2023

...a decidedly erratic piece of work that fares best in its exciting, action-packed opening stretch...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 23, 2023

But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films.

Full Review | May 23, 2023

The Mother nearly works but there are gaps in the story, as though long sequences are missing, making for a movie that is as emotionally distant as its lead.

Full Review | May 22, 2023

This forgettable action thriller is thoroughly derivative.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 22, 2023

A textbook example of a star vehicle, The Mother is competently executed and intermittently engaging, but is elevated only by Lopez’s presence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2023

Lopez has more than earned the right to be the star, to put great men in supporting roles, and tell a story that unapologetically centers her.

Full Review | May 21, 2023

Despite well-choreographed action and a gritty performance from Jennifer Lopez, The Mother is not the Mother’s Day vehicle Netflix had hoped it would be.

Full Review | May 20, 2023

Lopez easily has the goods to do a late career segue into action hero mode, but would appear to need a new agent and/or manager to help arrest the piling-up of bad movie vehicles that waste her prodigious talent.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 20, 2023

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‘the mother’ review: jennifer lopez in niki caro’s enjoyably silly netflix action thriller.

Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael García Bernal and Lucy Paez also star in this study of the maternal instinct under fire as a tough assassin emerges from hiding to protect her daughter.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Jennifer Lopez as The Mother in The Mother.

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<i>The Mother</i> Plays It Too Straight—But J.Lo’s Appeal Is Eternal

The Mother Plays It Too Straight—But J.Lo’s Appeal Is Eternal

N ot since Stella Dallas has a mother made so many selfless sacrifices for her daughter. Not since Taken has a protective parent fended off so many rotten baddies. Mush those two genres together—the classic women’s picture and the pulpy, rage-driven action adventure—and you get The Mother, in which Jennifer Lopez plays the mother to end all mothers, a mysterious assassin who slinks out of retirement to protect the daughter (Lucy Paez) she was forced to give up a dozen years ago.

It all begins with an interrogation. Lopez’s the Mother—her character, a womb with balls, has no name—slouches elegantly in some messy safe house somewhere, staring down a couple of no-nonsense FBI interrogators. She glowers from the cocoon of her artfully ragged cashmere hoodie as they pepper her with questions. Where are the two dangerous arms dealers she’s been tangling with? Was she really romantically involved with both of them? At the same time, even? Before the tough-guy feds can get answers, possible baby daddy number one (Joseph Fiennes) crashes their pad and attempts to blow them to smithereens. One of the agents (Omari Hardwick) nearly succumbs to his wounds, until the Mother, thinking quickly as mothers do, mends the gaping hole in his side by squirting some household glue in there. Then she retreats to the bathroom to fashion a Molotov cocktail from a bottle of tea tree shampoo, crouching in the shower as she awaits the man she knows is coming for her. By this point we see that she’s tremendously pregnant, and she’ll protect this baby at all costs. Woe betide Adrian, who dares jab at her stomach with a knife. Her tea-tree bomb burns him to a crisp. Or does it?

The Mother. (L to R) Jennifer Lopez as The Mother, Lucy Paez as Zoe in The Mother. Cr. Doane Gregory/Netflix © 2023.

Read more: The 16 Best J. Lo Movies of All Time

The Mother would, of course, like to keep this baby, but the FBI whisks the infant away shortly after she’s born. There’s nothing left for the newly bereft Mother to do but retreat to Alaska, where a former colleague ( Paul Raci ) offers her shelter in a shabby-chic decrepit cabin. There, she lives a quiet and solitary life, blamming deer and other wildlife for sustenance. Years pass, with nary a delivery from FreshDirect. Then she gets word that her daughter, Zoe, now 12, may be in danger. The trek to save her offspring takes the Mother from Alaska to Cincinnati to Cuba, where she encounters possible baby daddy number two (Gael García Bernal), who now appears to be both sinister and crazy: he’s sequestered himself in a temple of religious candles and guns. The Mother is having none of it—isn’t it time he got a real job?—and Hector, too, meets a bad end.

Snowmobile chases, knife fights, J.Lo kicking the asses of anyone who threatens her tiny nuclear family: If that sounds like fun, it is, but almost in spite of itself. Director Niki Caro (Whale Rider, Mulan) approaches the material reverently, as a parable about the strength of women. In one of the movie’s most compelling scenes, the Mother lectures Zoe, a sullen preteen who has no idea how good she has it, on the damage tofu has wrought upon the world. This is some pretty tough love.

The Mother. Jennifer Lopez as The Mother in The Mother. Cr. Ana Carballosa/Netflix © 2023.

But how can we not laugh—with joy, not derision—when we see our favorite mom hunting stag in Alaska while wearing the lushest fur-trimmed hood this side of Fendi? Lopez is a marvelous actor, appealing in ways that go beyond any analysis of technique. As the shamelessly out-for-herself dancer Ramona in the 2019 Hustlers, she revealed layers of vulnerability beneath her character’s hard-shell veneer, and she brings her A-game champagne-bubble charm offensive even to low-stakes, low-key comedies like Marry Me. The Mother would be more effective if she could wink at the audacity of the material instead of just playing it all straight. But then, Lopez can get away with things that other mere mortals can’t, and if you approach it in the right spirit, The Mother could be ridiculously good fun. It needs to be watched with the largest group of J.Lo fans you can assemble, ideally people who know artfully applied highlighter when they see it in the wild. Forget automatic weapons; it’s the Beauty Blender that gets the job done.

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Cast & crew
User reviews

While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left earlier in life. While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left earlier in life. While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left earlier in life.

Misha Green
Andrea Berloff
Peter Craig
Jennifer Lopez
Omari Hardwick
430 User reviews
102 Critic reviews
45 Metascore
1 win & 1 nomination

Top cast 29

SAIC Eleanor Williams

Zoe's Adopted Dad

Marcus Stone

C-Section Nurse

Fed at Zoe's House
(as Yadier Fernandez)

Medical Clinic Nurse
Arms Dealer
Exam Room Doctor
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia Jennifer Lopez character has no name.
Goofs J Lo said Joseph Fiennes' character, "Lovell" , was S.A.S training the unit she was serving with. If that was true, why was he wearing a Parachute Regiment beret? Did they not have a military advisor on set either? I'm ex UK military and that is NOT how you wear a beret! He looked more like Frank Spencer.

The Mother : [the bowl of meat is in front of Zoe] Eat.

Zoe : I can't.

The Mother : Yes, you can.

Zoe : [eyes filled with tears, she shakes her head] Not eating Bambi's mom.

The Mother : That's isn't venison. The deer is to hang for the meat to tenderize. Besides, that was a stag, so... it would be Bambi's dad.

Zoe : What is this, then?

The Mother : Rabbit. Thumper.

Zoe : I'm not eating a rabbit either.

The Mother : [sighs] Listen to me. That rabbit had a better life than any cheeseburger you ever ate.

Zoe : It had a beautiful life until you shot it.

The Mother : I trapped it.

Zoe : [sarcastically] Much better.

The Mother : Let me tell you something, kid. There's nothing you ever ate your whole life that didn't come from violence.

Zoe : Tofu.

The Mother : Half of Paraguay was burned and deforested for soy plantations.

Zoe : Cheese.

The Mother : Those cows are impregnated just so they can be pulled on all day.

Zoe : Gross.

The Mother : Gmph.

Zoe : Cashew cheese.

The Mother : I knew a mercenary in the Ivory Coast. He said they fought a civil war over cashews.

Zoe : [tearfully] I wanna go home.

Connections Referenced in Toxic Femininity: Netflix' Cleopatra worst ever on Rotten Tomatoes, "Hold my beer" says Miller (2023)
Soundtracks Mala Mia Written by Miky La Sensa (as Stiven Rojas Escobar), Chan El Genio (as Bryan Chaverra), Edgar Barrera , Nyal Beats (as Johany Alejandro Correa Moreno), Maluma (as Juan Luis Londono Arias), Kevin Adg (as Kevin Mauricio Jimenez Londono) Performed by Maluma Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment US Latin, LLC

User reviews 430

May 16, 2023
How long is The Mother? Powered by Alexa
May 12, 2023 (United States)
United States
Official Netflix
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain (Havana)
Nuyorican Productions
Vertigo Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$43,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 55 minutes
Dolby Atmos

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Lopez is a killer of a mother, and no doubt a mother killer along the way; she admits — or perhaps boasts — that she knocked off 46 people while on duty in the Middle East, and is not someone to ever back down and do any less than kick her opponent’s ass. That said, she is understandably obsessed with her daughter Zoe, but ultimately unduly so as far as the FBI is concerned; when the agency tells her that the only way to protect her child is to disappear, she obediently agrees, disowns the child, and takes off for Alaska.

But you can bet that The Mother is not just going to just give up and live with the polar bears for the rest of her life. Sure enough, the baddies kidnap the daughter (Lucy Paez), now 12 years old, from a school playground, after which the next stop is, of all places, Havana, a location that is doubled extremely well by an urban area of the Canary Islands.

The Mother is under constraints of one kind or another most of the time, but you know she won’t remain so for too long. As it enters its final laps, The Mother ultimately becomes the female bonding film it’s been threatening to become nearly from the beginning, and it’s a hard-earned goal in almost every respect. The story is something close to a fairy tale transformed into a contemporary hard-action melodrama with a very long arc. But fanciful as it all is, the toughness of the characters and the film’s grave but propulsive energy keeps the proceedings almost always intriguing and one’s expectations in a constant state of curiosity as to where this might all end up.

Lopez is a coiled wire that sets the tone for this tautly and tightly wound tale. Nothing that’s achieved by the characters here is easy and sometimes requires indefinite amounts of patience and fortitude. Lopez and Caro seem very much in sync as they relate the sprawling tale in a disciplined manner that maintains interest and curiosity, if not high levels of downright excitement. The filmmakers avoid cheap thrills and gratuitous violence that, in other hands, might have made this story possibly more popular with viewers. But Caro holds the reins tight and has keenly told a peculiar story that will likely stick in the mind.

Title: The Mother Distributor: Netflix Release date: May 12, 2023 Director: Niki Caro Screenwriters: Misha Green and Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, Gael Garcia Bernal Rating: R Running time: 1 hr 55 min

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Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

The Mother (2023) Review and Ending Explained – Lou + Peppermint x Winter Weather = Retread

The Mother is a dull, stagnant, and futile exercise in streaming content.

After watching a couple thousand action films, I started The Mother , and it finally happened. Jennifer Lopez’s character chases a villain that would make Hank Quinlan blush. The man puts out a solid forearm and knocks over a sweet-looking nun dressed in crisp all-white friar and Cornette.

It’s that type of thriller that combines the sensibilities of female-led revenge thrillers like Peppermint and Lou that equals nothing more than another retread that studio executives call original. Most shockingly, it comes from Niki Caro, the director of The Whale Rider.

The mother (2023) review and plot summary, is the 2023 film the mother worth watching, the mother (2023) ending explained.

Lopez plays “Mother,” a former military operative and veteran of back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with forty confirmed kills and an accurate sniper rifle from at least 1,300 meters away.

Just after her last military operation, Mother went to work for Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal) and Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes), illegal arms dealers who utilize her talents.

However, Mother wants out, and she is nine months pregnant. She tries to strike a deal with Special Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) and Williams (Edie Falco) to enter witness protection.

However, after her former employers find her location, she is almost killed. Mother then must give up her child for adoption and enter protective custody. She hides in Alaska with the help of her former commander, Jons (Paul Raci).

That’s the carrot, now here’s the stick — twelve years later, her old employers locate her missing daughter, Zoe (Lucy Paez), and use her as a pawn by kidnapping her in order to draw Mother out. With the help of Cruise, they travel overseas to rescue the daughter she never knew.

It’s almost shocking how inept and eye-rolling the material is here, considering the talent involved in this mess. Besides Niki Caro going for a straightforward payday, the script is written by some of the most talented blockbuster writers working today.

The original story was from Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green , who developed the script, along with Andrea Berloff, who wrote Straight Outta Compton . Then, inexplicably, The Batman , Top Gun: Maverick , and The Town scribe Peter Craig took a swing and missed wildly.

What went wrong? Well, the material is recycled. The writers fumble over any sort of theme that comes with vulnerable populations and animal rights. The plot is as obvious as they come, which comes across as bland and even pointless.

The story is a practically rudderless existence since the final two acts repeat themselves in vastly different settings.

At the very least, Lopez holds her own as an action star and gets back to her days in Enough , but the movie has very few thrills. The material is bad here. The villains are so over the top and give off the fun vibe that they’re so bad. And the booby prize goes to Fiennes. I’m not sure what he did to be stuck in a film like The Mother.

The star of films like Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth is cartoonishly menacing with little room to make the role interesting.

The Mother is a bad action-thriller with a good Jennifer Lopez wasted in the role. The story is a dull, stagnant, and futile exercise in streaming content.

There are much better films to stream on Netflix with strong and intelligent action heroes, like Kate and Gunpowder Milkshake . The Mother is worth watching with your mom on Mother’s Day if you are looking to enact some sweet revenge after a childhood filled with abuse and neglect. If you are a fan of mind-numbing, female-driven revenge thrillers like Peppermint and Lou , the Niki Caro film fits that description all too perfectly.

Is Hector Zoe’s father?

The question of whether Hector is Zoe’s father is never answered clearly by Mother. In the movie, the script states that Mother dated both arms dealers, including Adrian and Hector Álvarez. However, when Alvarez’s henchmen kidnap Zoe, the question is raised.

Mother and Special Agent Cruise can rescue Zoe, but Alvarez corners her with a gun and asks if the little girl is his. Mother replies, “Does it matter?” She ends up killing him to escape.

The Mother (2023) (Credit – Netflix)

Is Adrian Zoe’s father?

Whether Adrian is Zoe’s father is never answered directly, but there is enough evidence to conclude he is, in fact, the father. This all despite stabbing Mother in the stomach with a large, sharp knife to kill her and her unborn child. For one, at the 57:31 mark, Adrian attempts to kidnap Zoe after her initial rescue and holds her head in his hands lovingly.

At the 38:17 mark, Mother arranges for Hector and Adrian to work together. She challenges him that he cannot dance as well as Hector in a flashback, where Adrian then grabs her ass. She tells Cruise she became pregnant, which hints at Adrian being the father. It should be noted, though, at the 40:52 mark, Mother means Cruise that Zoe is not either’s, only “mine.”

What did Mother try to make a deal with the FBI?

After becoming pregnant, Mother discovered that Hector and Adrian were not only smuggling weapons but had also become human traffickers. Suspecting that there was more going on than just moving guns, she checked Adrian’s shipping crates.

In the first crate, she only found assault rifles in wooden boxes, but she heard coughing and whimpering coming from another container. Upon opening it, she found dozens of neglected children. Mother called the authorities and tried to strike a deal

How does Mother save Zoe?

Mother saves Zoe from Adrian in Alaska by shooting him in the head with her sniper rifle while trying to drive away from him. After being bitten by a wolf puppy, Mother takes Zoe to a clinic but gives the doctor her real name. Mother knows Adrian will be shown that information because it was put into a public database.

Mother leaves Zoe with her former commander, who lives nearby, but Zoe escapes and returns to Mother. Adrian’s associates then capture Mother, but after killing a dozen or so bad guys on snowmobiles, Mother gets her back. Adrian holds Mother at gunpoint, but Zoe shoots at both of them, trying to defend her biological parent.

The bullets, however, are packed with salt, which is used to scare away wolves.

Adrian is injured but grabs Zoe and throws her into a truck. From a couple of football fields away, with her arm injured, Mother takes a shot, killing Adrian and saving Zoe after the car stops.

Does Mother regain custody of Zoe?

No, Mother does not regain custody of Zoe. After rescuing her, Mother returns Zoe to her adoptive mother. However, the Mother rents an apartment where she can watch Zoe play outside at school. One day, Zoe stops skating and looks up at the apartment window, making a fake rifle-shooting sound with her mouth and hands.

Mother touches her heart, revealing a bracelet with the word ‘mom’ on it

What did you think of the 2023 Netflix film The Mother? Comment below.

RELATED: Who Plays the Daughter in The Mother?

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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Netflix’s The Mother misses a clear chance to make Jennifer Lopez an action star

Mulan and The Whale Rider director Niki Caro forgets what J.Lo does best

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by Pete Volk

Jennifer Lopez looks fierce while wearing a hooded fur coat in The Mother.

Ask any great screen fighter, and they’ll tell you: Movie fighting is much more like dancing than like real fighting. Bruce Lee was famously a champion cha-cha dancer, Patrick Swayze successfully transitioned from dancer to action star, and scores of movies from India have shown how terrific dancers make for terrific screen fighters.

That’s the opportunity director Niki Caro ( The Whale Rider , Disney’s live-action Mulan ) has with Netflix’s The Mother , a dark action thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a nameless assassin thrust back into action to protect the daughter she gave up at birth. Lopez is a singular talent who has excelled in the crime genre with Out of Sight and Hustlers. She’s an enjoyable comedic actor, and she’s particularly strong as a dancer, coming up as a Fly Girl on In Living Color before hitting global superstardom through her dance-centric music videos.

Jennifer Lopez leaps over the top of a car in The Mother.

Unfortunately, neither of those skills gets much use in The Mother , which doesn’t give her much to work with. The plot and her character are darkly serious, and the most exciting action sequences involve long-range gun fights and vehicle chase scenes. The few hand-to-hand combat sequences are edited beyond recognition, robbing viewers of any chance to follow the action or appreciate the work Lopez put in for this role.

“She had to learn how to fight, and she’s really good,” second unit director Jeff Habberstad said in a behind-the-scenes video about her training for the role. “Dance and choreography background makes it so she’s just real coordinated.”

The Mother opens at an FBI safe house, where Lopez’s very pregnant character (credited only as “The Mother”) is acting as an informant, with agents interviewing her about a pair of dangerous arms dealers. The interview ends badly, with a hard-to-parse fight scene (thanks to Netflix’s compression and some dark lighting ) that leaves her isolated, unfairly on the outs with the FBI, and forced to leave her new daughter behind. (Just saying this sequence strains credulity would be an understatement.) She makes a deal on the side with FBI agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick), who will watch her daughter and contact her if anything goes wrong. Twelve years later, she’s moved to Alaska, and gets the message that something indeed has gone wrong.

The movie’s entire setup is a series of thinly drawn characters and conflicts. In The Mother , people recite the title character’s biography to her in order to build her legend, rather than letting us see it and believe it for ourselves, or having characters tell each other about her, as if she were a spooky story (a tactic used in John Wick , and, more recently, Sisu ). Bad guys illustrate that they’re evil by pushing down nuns in the street. Gael García Bernal plays a cartoonishly villainous arms dealer who says things like “You sold your soul to the devil, how do you look so good?” — which sounds like fun, but instead plays out as another rote bad guy who sexually menaces the protagonist with a series of played-out aggressive pickup lines, like some sort of perverted wind-up doll.

Jennifer Lopez, wearing a leather jacket, stands protectively in front of Lucy Paez, in front of a motorcycle, in The Mother.

The most interesting part about The Mother is the relationship between The Mother and her estranged daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez). A small portion of the movie is spent with the two of them together, as The Mother teaches Zoe to drive, shoot, and fend for herself in the Alaska wilderness. The two of them getting to know each other and forging a connection through circumstance is the best narrative thread in The Mother , but Caro speeds through it quickly. It’s shocking when The Mother at one point refers to the “months” they’ve spent together — it feels like a week, maximum.

Some of the action beats do work better than others. A sniping scene outside a villa sees The Mother picking off guards from far away, allowing for some creative blocking and framing as the bodies drop one by one. Some later sequences in snowy Alaska at least look nicer than the poorly lit interiors from the first half, and are more exciting, including an explosive snowmobile chase and shootout. There’s also a funny gag where The Mother hits a guy with her car as a nearby wedding party does the bouquet toss, and the edit matches his flight through the air with the bouquet’s similar arc.

Jennifer Lopez lies down with a sniper rifle in the snow, with a heavy fur coat on, in The Mother.

But Caro and editor David Coulson even undercut those moments with bizarre cuts that pull the story’s punches. In one scene, The Mother is brutally interrogating a gangster, hitting him repeatedly in the face while asking questions. She actually has barbed wire around her fist, which Caro only shows after The Mother is done punching him, rather than building anticipation for the brutality by showing her wrapping her fists with it. Then The Mother waterboards him, which gets her the information she needs within seconds, because apparently we’re in the 2000s again.

The Mother is the second straight-to-streaming Jennifer Lopez action movie this year, following the Prime Video action comedy Shotgun Wedding . While The Mother goes for more emotional depth, Shotgun Wedding at least recognized Lopez’s central talents and used them, giving her an opportunity to flex her comedic chops as well as her movement skills. The end result for Netflix is a missed opportunity to redefine a generational star as a bona fide action hero.

The Mother is streaming on Netflix now.

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The Mother Review

Jennifer Lopez reminded us that she’s pretty handy with a weapon in Shotgun Wedding earlier this year. She gets multiple opportunities to showcase that once again in The Mother , a movie which sees her join the likes of Liam Neeson , Denzel Washington , and Bob Odenkirk in the annals of late-career action herodom. Directed by Niki Caro , it’s a slick if slight Netflix outing that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but does just enough to entertain.

Lopez easily convinces as a formidable woman who’s an expert in combat. And while the action scenes are not revolutionary, they do have a crispness about them. The punches feel impactful. The high point comes when Lopez's character (she is credited simply as 'The Mother') heads to Cuba to dispatch a house full of bad men with speed and decisiveness. The low point comes in a chase scene so over-edited that for a brief second, it feels as though you’re watching Taken 2 .

This is a film that’s first and foremost a showcase for its star.

For much of the film, Lopez cuts an intense and stoic figure. But inevitably, that hardened exterior is slowly pierced to reveal a beating heart as she spends more time with her daughter. Misha Green’s script leans a little too hard into a mother-wolf metaphor that would’ve been more effective as visual storytelling rather than being explicitly spelled out. But it also gives ample opportunity to Lopez and Lucy Paez to generate decent chemistry with one another.

As for the men, there’s not much meat on the bone for anyone here. There’s a hint that there might be something more than respect between Omari Hardwick ’s FBI agent and Lopez’s Mother, but it’s not explored enough for certain moments to hit as hard as they should. Meanwhile, Paul Raci’s Jons – a weapons specialist who served with Mother in Afghanistan – is little more than an exposition machine. Villains-wise, Gael García Bernal ’s Hector Alvarez is criminally underused, and Joseph Fiennes ’ scarred former SAS arms dealer remains one note throughout.

But this is a film that’s first and foremost a showcase for its star, and on that front it – and Lopez – deliver. The Mother marks her first significant action drama since 1998’s Out Of Sight , a career high point. Hopefully, it won’t be her last.

'The Mother' review: Jennifer Lopez and all the mothers out there deserve better

Just in time for Mother's Day, Jennifer Lopez stars in "The Mother."

Just in time for Mother's Day, Jennifer Lopez stars in "The Mother," the ideal tribute to devoted mothers everywhere. If only.

Instead, this R-rated Netflix gorefest is a brutal, bloody, revenge thriller that thinks killing to protect your kids is right up there with the loving art of raising them.

Yikes! There are so many things wrong with "The Mother," especially the dopey dialogue, that it's hard to know where to start enumerating its most glaring faults. Let's begin with the lame script credited to three writers who shall remain nameless -- they can thank me later.

The basic plot is this. Lopez plays a military-trained assassin who gives up her daughter at birth so she can turn state's evidence against the two sadistic global terrorists -- one of them is the father -- who swears vengeance for betraying them by taking her and her daughter down.

Mother, as she's referred to throughout the movie, shows her parenting skills by asking FBI agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick), whose life she saves in the opening shootout scene, to arrange for her child to be raised by a good family and report to her if there's any trouble.

Twelve years later, the distress call comes in for Mother at the isolated cabin in Alaska where she's been hiding in chic assassin wear with the help of Jons ("Sound of Metal" Oscar nominee Paul Raci), a soldier she served with in Afghanistan. Her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez), whose photos she stares at dreamily, has been kidnapped. And it's Mother and William to the rescue.

MORE: Watch Jennifer Lopez in new action-packed trailer for 'The Mother'

Is the culprit Adrian Lovell, the murderous arms dealer played by Joseph Fiennes, the star of "Shakespeare in Love" and "The Handmaid's Tale" who is clearly slumming in the one-note role of a seductive Svengali who uses Mother for her "wow" body and her skills as a sniper, but can't understand why she'd give a damn about this brat that may be his.

Or is it Hector Alvarez, a contractor Mother met in Guantanamo Bay in 2007 as played by the way overqualified Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien," "Mozart in the Jungle"). Hector has imprisoned Zoe in a hideout in Cuba where he sits like a pervy king on a throne surrounded by candles as he plots a thoroughly ridiculous revenge.

It's hard to find any reason why these former lovers of Mother, whose taste in men needs a serious rethink, would raise armies to destroy her other than Lopez is a star and it's fun to watch director Niki Caro ("Whale Rider," "Mulan") set up this Latina powerhouse to mow down the bad guys like sitting ducks of macho ineptitude.

In the film's last third, set in Alaska where Mother instructs Zoe in the cringey craft of efficient manslaughter, Caro pumps up genuine momentum. What a shame that the script buries her skills in an avalanche of cliches and blood-drenched mother-daughter bonding that would leave the folks at Hallmark cards clutching their pearls in horror.

MORE: Review: 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' is everything you'd want in a wacky, wild summer ride

Lopez handles the fight choreography like the dazzling dancer she is. So it's galling to watch her play this rugged warrior with glam makeup and lighting more appropriate to a magazine photo shoot. The film's poster showing a weaponized, airbrushed Lopez in a fashion fur hat and movie icon warpaint sums up the phoniness at the movie's core.

Lopez, denied the Oscar nod she deserved for "Hustlers," has always been a stronger actress than her critics allow. But "The Mother" finds her going Hollywood on a story that needed to at least seem real. It's not like male muscle stars (I'm looking at you Vin Diesel) don't indulge in the same family-that-slays-together silliness. But J.Lo and all the mothers out there deserve better.

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The Mother review: Is Jennifer Lopez's Netflix movie worth a look?

It's available to watch now.

preview for The Mother - Official Trailer (Netflix)

Lopez plays the mother of the title – a former soldier/assassin whose name we never learn – who we first meet when she is being held in a safe house by FBI agents quizzing her about her two ex-boyfriends, evil gun runners Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal).

Of course, the safe house isn’t safe at all, and before she can tell them anything, armed men have shot the place up and Lovell has cornered our heroine in the bathroom, where he spots her large pregnancy bump and stabs it, just to prove what a truly bad baddie he is. Luckily, The Mother escapes when he is engulfed in flames from a little explosion she created using a few cleaning products and a candle (she’s a very resourceful former assassin, in case you hadn’t guessed) and goes on to safely have her baby. And that’s all in the first 10 minutes.

omari hardwick, jennifer lopez, the mother

Jump forward 12 years and The Mother is living in the wilds of Alaska, having given up her baby girl for adoption to keep her safe. Her only friend at the FBI, agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick), warns her that her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez) is in danger, however, forcing her to come out of hiding to protect the child she has never met, and to confront those bad guys – either of whom could be Zoe’s dad.

From here, the smartly-paced story takes Cruise and The Mother to Cuba in search of Alvarez, and a tongue-in-cheek chase through the streets is thrown in, involving every obstacle you can think of, from nuns and a funeral procession to a wedding and a group of school kids, before it reaches its hilarious conclusion with a bad guy flying through the sky in slow motion at the same time as a tossed wedding bouquet.

We also get that staple of many a revenge action film, the training sequence, when The Mother and Zoe are back in the snowy wilds and mum teaches daughter how to survive using guns and knives, as well as how to drive should the bad guys come after them again. No prizes for guessing whether those life lessons come in handy later on.

As you may have realised, it’s all pretty predictable – the biggest surprise is how underused Bernal, Fiennes and The Sopranos ' Edie Falco (in a blink and you’ll miss it role) are – and at times, it’s quite preposterous, too.

But that’s part of the fun, whether you’re wondering how The Mother can speed off from a crime scene littered with bodies without the police chasing her, or puzzling why she and Cruise are sent into Cuba alone without any FBI backup to take out a whole gang of heavily trained, gun-toting thugs by themselves.

Happily, the movie never takes itself too seriously (and we shouldn’t either) and never pretends to be anything more than what it is – an action thriller that is a showcase for Jennifer Lopez.

And as that, it works brilliantly. Lopez – who rarely gets the acting credit she deserves – is extremely watchable as the resourceful, protective and even brutal (she hits people with a fist wrapped in barbed wire!) heart of the movie, and her scenes with screen daughter Paez are enjoyably unsentimental, too.

While we could have done with a bit more scene-chewing from a growling Joseph Fiennes, in the end this is Lopez’s movie from start to finish, and if you're on board for that, The Mother is an enjoyably daft action movie treat.

The Mother is available to watch on Netflix now.

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Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times , OK! , The Guardian and Grazia , is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies .

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The Mother Reviews Are Here, And Critics Are Saying The Same Thing About Jennifer Lopez’s Netflix Action Movie

Just in time for Mother's Day.

Jennifer Lopez hit the big screen with two movies last year — the adorable rom-com Marry Me and then the romantic action flick Shotgun Wedding . This year it appears she’s leaving the romance to her personal life, with her new Netflix movie The Mother bringing straight action. JLo plays the titular character, a former assassin who comes out of retirement to protect her estranged daughter. The reviews are in, so let’s see if this is one you’ll be firing up with a bag of microwave popcorn for this Mother’s Day weekend.

Along with Jennifer Lopez , the cast of The Mother includes Lucy Paez in her first major role as daughter Zoe, and Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal as ex-boyfriends/arms dealers. The Hustlers actress was looking great in the first looks for the female-driven action movie, and the trailer promises we’ll get to see JLo kicking plenty of ass . Let’s get to the critics, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of The Mother . Our own Mike Reyes rates the movie just 2 stars out of 5, saying Lopez proves herself as an action lead, but the film never figures out how to mesh that with the emotional premise. He continues:

Seeing as Jennifer Lopez is the mother that gives the film its title, the failure to build her character causes a collapse on shaky foundation on which this movie is built. The action is too tame to raise your heartrate, and the drama is so basic that you can almost always guess what the next line’s going to be. Predictability doesn’t always kill a movie, but if you don’t add a little bit more to the pot to really flavor what’s being served, the result isn’t going to taste good.

Courtney Howard of AV Club grades The Mother a C+, agreeing with the above review that Jennifer Lopez delivers with both her powerful punches and empowering emotions, but the film overall doesn’t examine, augment or challenge the genre’s familiar formulas. The review states:

The film’s fabric experiences a few frays that lead to a sloppy unraveling. Around the midpoint, characters slowly stop behaving as humans, and behave more like puppets functioning on behalf of the story. It also suffers from a villain problem where both of the evil exes are barely one dimensional, neither oppressive nor genuinely menacing due to Fiennes’ and Bernal’s lack of meaty material. Screenwriter contrivances guide the second-to-third-act transition. The Mother’s considerable abilities begin to slip for baffling reasons that run counter to her established character—early on she can mend a bullet wound with superglue, but later she can’t stitch a bite wound.

Nadia Dalimonte of Next Best Picture rates the movie 6 out of 10, saying that while JLo brings a refreshing perspective on female perseverance, the film around her is flawed, with a screenplay that rushes storylines and action sequences that are edited so heavily they’re hard to follow. The critic says:

The film reaches more interesting heights in its second half when it focuses on how the mother-daughter dynamic is shaped by Lopez’s character resurfacing in Zoe’s life. The screenplay gives the two characters a bit of time to communicate some of the things they had imagined wanting to say to each other. ... Despite the promise of the film’s second half and the entertainment value of watching Lopez fight through every imaginable obstacle to protect her daughter, the film feels unexplored to its full potential. Large gaps in the story leave more questions than answers, for instance, regarding why the threats posed to these characters operate on such relentless levels.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety calls The Mother “action filmmaking made basic,” but he seems to fall in line with the other critics when it comes to the leading actress, who Gleiberman says deserves better. In terms of JLo, he continues:

She shoots, she stabs, she chops windpipes, she motorcycles down stone stairways in one of those chase-through-an-ancient-city action scenes (this one takes place in Havana), she tortures a man by punching him with a fist wrapped in barbed wire, she grimaces in muscle-torn agony but mostly looks frozen and implacable. Even more important, she puts her own spin on those familiar motions.

Peter Travers of GMA Culture says Jennifer Lopez (and all of the mothers out there) deserve better, given this movie’s dopey dialogue and nonsensical plot. The critic points out that watching JLo kick ass is absolutely the main draw, saying:

It's hard to find any reason why these former lovers of Mother, whose taste in men needs a serious rethink, would raise armies to destroy her other than Lopez is a star and it's fun to watch director Niki Caro (Whale Rider, Mulan) set up this Latina powerhouse to mow down the bad guys like sitting ducks of macho ineptitude.

The critics overall seem disappointed in The Mother , but it sounds like Jennifer Lopez’s performance might make this worth watching anyway. The movie is available now for those with a Netflix subscription , so feel free to check it out for yourself! You can also take a look at our 2023 Movie Release Schedule to see what’s coming to theaters soon.

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Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.

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REVIEW: “The Mother” (2023)

I’m up for seeing Jennifer Lopez go full-action heroine just as much as anyone. And that’s what we get in director Niki Caro’s new film “The Mother”. Written by the trio of Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig, this made for streaming genre feature gives the one-time Fly Girl on “In Living Color” turned multifaceted superstar plenty of scenes to show off her physicality. At the same time it follows a very well-worn formula to a tee and the note-for-note predictability ultimately weighs the movie down.

For some it can be easy to forget that Jennifer Lopez is a really good actress. Her coverage is often skewed towards her celebrity status with the press routinely more interested in who she’s dating than the work she’s doing. But the accomplished singer and dancer has proven to have a terrific screen presence. And despite a few questionable film choices, Lopez has always been very comfortable taking on an interesting variety of roles.

In “The Mother” she plays the titular character who we first meet early one morning at an FBI safehouse in Linton, Indiana. She’s an expecting mother who is never named being interrogated by Agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick) about a weapons deal she set up between an arms broker Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal) and a terrorist leader Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes). She’s looking to cut a deal; the FBI wants information; both Álvarez and Lovell want her dead.

Suddenly the safehouse is assaulted by Lovell who kills most of the agents and seriously wounds the pregnant mother. But using her ‘particular set of skills’ the mother manages to survive. She’s taken to a hospital where she gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Convinced by the FBI that her daughter will be an immediate and constant target, the mother agrees to sign over her parental rights and disappear. She has only three conditions: they put her daughter with a stable family, she gets yearly updates on her daughter’s wellbeing, and if there’s any trouble they will let her know.

Twelve years pass and we see the mother living off the grid in Tlingit Bay, Alaska. Meanwhile her daughter named Zoe (Lucy Paez) has enjoyed a normal childhood with a loving family. But this is an action-thriller so we know the peaceful times aren’t going to last. Cruise contacts the mother and informs her that some of Álvarez’s men were apprehended and one of them had a picture of Zoe. The mother springs into action, leaving her isolated life to protect the daughter she was forced to leave behind.

Along the way it becomes evident that this mother isn’t someone to mess with. We learn she’s ex-military and served back-to-back tours in Afghanistan. There she was trained as an expert sniper with more than a few kills to her credit. But none of this is a surprise. I mean most of these movies are built around a protagonist who is ex-military, ex-CIA, ex-FBI, ex-assassin, etc. It’s a handy history to have in a movie like this. It’s also pretty conventional and something filmmakers have gone back to again and again.

Ultimately that’s what this film feels like – something we’ve seen again and again. Yet there’s something to be said about J-Lo’s commitment to her role. Despite the familiarity surrounding her character and the generic framework of her story, Lopez earns our empathy and our investment. She can’t quite make up for everything, but she makes it watchable and has the star wattage to get us through the movie’s shakier parts. “The Mother” premieres today exclusively on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

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"F--k," "s--t," "hell," "bitch," "d--k," "balls," "Jesus."

A woman was in a relationship with two different men and got pregnant by one of

A man snorts cocaine off his hand. Adults drink alcohol. A tween starts to light

Some car brands are seen.

Any Positive Content?

Main actors in the film are Latino (Lopez) and Black (Hardwick, as the upstandin

Mothers will do anything for their kids. You can turn your life around. Children

The Mother sacrifices her own life for her daughter and lives to protect her, bu

Violence & Scariness

Lots of blood and gruesome deaths and injuries from guns, crashes, stabbings, fires, and falls. A trained assassin uses what she learned in the military to torture and kill people. A mother is separated from her child, and the child is kidnapped and threatened with harm. Other kids are also kidnapped and trafficked for powerful men who presumably want something "not on the menu." Adult figures are killed or maimed in front of children who love them. A woman dislocates her shoulder and knocks it back into place. War veterans mention PTSD. Animals are killed, wounded, seen suffering, and attack humans.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A woman was in a relationship with two different men and got pregnant by one of them. Flashbacks show her dancing with one man, who puts his hand on her bottom, and flirting with the other. Upon reuniting with the latter, he mentions the "games" they used to play that involved "safe words." He says she is "so hot" that his "d--k" is "hard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A man snorts cocaine off his hand. Adults drink alcohol. A tween starts to light up what looks like a joint before her mother knocks it out of her hand. The girl complains that her mother smokes it so why can't she?

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Diverse representations.

Main actors in the film are Latino (Lopez) and Black (Hardwick, as the upstanding FBI agent). The foreign actors, including Mexicans and a Brit, play international criminals with no moral code, willing to kidnap and traffic children.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Mothers will do anything for their kids. You can turn your life around. Children should not be made to do harm to others, even for their own protection.

Positive Role Models

The Mother sacrifices her own life for her daughter and lives to protect her, but that means having no real life or relationships of her own and killing a lot of people. Other adults are equally loving and protective of Zoe. International criminals traffic arms and kids.

Parents need to know that The Mother is a bloody action film starring Jennifer Lopez with grisly scenes of torture and death, sometimes involving children. No kids are killed in the film, but they are kidnapped, trafficked, threatened with harm, trained to kill, forced to watch loved ones die, and put in potentially fatal situations. A mother is separated from her child at birth. Other adults are killed by guns, crashes, stabbings, and falls. A trained assassin uses what she learned in the military to torture and kill people. When she dislocates a shoulder, she knocks it back into place. Adults drink alcohol, are said to smoke, and snort cocaine. A tween starts to light up what looks like a joint before her mother knocks it out of her hand. The bad guys are mostly Cuban (played by Mexican and Latino actors), and the heroine is Latina. She's aided by a trustworthy Black FBI agent. A woman was in a relationship with two different men and got pregnant by one of them. Flashbacks show her dancing with one man, who puts his hand on her bottom, and flirting with the other. Upon reuniting with the latter, he uses explicit language to talk about their past relationship. Other language includes "f--k," "s--t," "hell," "bitch," "d--k," "balls," and "Jesus." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Close up of Jennifer Lopez's face as she rides a motorcycle with a fireball in the background

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Not impressed

One of the best movies of year, what's the story.

When THE MOTHER opens, a woman ( Jennifer Lopez ) is being interrogated by FBI agents, but she keeps warning them their safe house isn't safe. Sure enough, within minutes, shots ring out and seven agents are killed. The Mother helps save one of the agents, Cruise ( Omari Hardwick ), and manages to escape, but not without taking a wound to her pregnant belly. When the baby is born, the Mother gives her up for adoption for the child's own safety, making Cruise promise to provide annual updates and keep the girl, named Zoe, under his watch. The Mother, a military-trained assassin, bides her time, staying in shape to come to the girl's aide at a moment's notice. Fast forward 12 years, and Zoe (Lucy Paez) is suddenly the target of the same men the Mother was informing on to the FBI, international criminals Adrian ( Joseph Fiennes ) and Hector ( Gael García Bernal ). Now, the Mother must do whatever it takes to protect her daughter, even coming in from the shadows.

Is It Any Good?

Jennifer Lopez carries this movie in a physical role that asks her to tumble down hills, face off with wolves, and get hit by cars. But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films. The scenario moves from Indiana to Alaska to Cuba to Afghanistan, and back again, but the exotic locations are ultimately interchangeable because secondary characters or any real local flavor are absent. In that sense, a car chase in Havana (actually shot in Spain) doesn't feel significantly different from a snowmobile chase in Tlingit Bay (actually Canada).

Lopez is the star here, let no viewer imagine otherwise. Her character is hard-edged and unable to emote, which makes for limited dialogue, but Lopez captures her maternal angst in protective actions and meaningful glances. Paez is defiant and often teary-eyed across her. Other actors -- Fiennes, García Bernal, and Hardwick -- appear only briefly and/or get killed off quickly. Expect lots and lots of blood. The sequences explaining the backstory are constructed out of clichés, but they do flesh out motivations. Action-packed and female-driven, with an emotional mother-daughter ending, The Mother will keep your attention at the moment, but it probably won't stay with you long after the end credits roll.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the idea that The Mother's love would compel her to sacrifice her own life, any semblance of normalcy, and kill repeatedly to protect her child. Does this seem realistic? Is it healthy?

How does the military come across in this film? What's your opinion of this portrayal?

Did this movie remind you of any others you have watched? Which ones, and why?

How is violence portrayed in this film? Do you think all of the explicit scenes of death and injury were necessary to convey the storyline and develop the characters? Why or why not?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : May 12, 2023
Cast : Jennifer Lopez , Omari Hardwick , Lucy Paez
Director : Niki Caro
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors, Black actors, Female writers, Black writers
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Thriller
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts
Run time : 116 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence, some language and brief drug use
Last updated : September 16, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

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Out of Sight

Best action movies for kids, thriller movies, related topics.

Sports and Martial Arts

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Should You Watch ‘The Mother’? Review of Jennifer Lopez’s New Netflix Movie

Our PLAY, PAUSE, OR STOP review for The Mother on Netflix

The new Jennifer Lopez action film, The Mother , is now streaming, but should you give it a watch?

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! Even if you are a nameless trained assassin who abandoned your child at the government’s insistence! Sorry. Too specific?

Playing with the theme of the weekend, Netflix has released The Mother , a new action thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a former special forces sniper who finds herself fleeing dangerous men from her past after informing on them to the FBI.

Pregnant with a child conceived by one of these dangerous men, the character only known as The Mother is forced to give up her baby & go into hiding in the Alaskan wilderness. After 12 years, The Mother is brought back into her daughter’s life as she is kidnapped by the top lieutenants of notorious gun smuggler & potential biological father Hector Alvarez, played in borderline disgusting fashion by Gael Garcia Bernal (Old, Y Tu Mama Tambien ).

In what feels like a Frankenstein creation of a script from several attempts at rewrites, The Mother ’s biggest weakness is on the page; particularly, the backstory of the central character and the paper-thin and incredibly boring cliches for villains.

As we are thrust into the world of The Mother , we, as the audience, want to join in on the fight to protect her & her child from the heinous criminals from her past. However, about 40 minutes into the film, The Mother explains how she came to know Hector Alvarez & other potential father to her child Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes).

She met Lovell in Afghanistan as he was a former SAS agent training her sniper unit. He attempted to recruit her to sell weapons and “off-menu” items to any of the rich and powerful men in the region. She found his offer appealing as she thought the best she could do after the service was to be the best cashier at a retail store. So even though she was the top sniper in her unit with nearly 50 confirmed kills, she thought that she had no other compelling options other than arms dealing (or worse!) to anyone with money. She eventually does some brokering of her own as she brings together Alvarez’s large supply of smuggled guns to Lovell in order to cash in and retire. The Mother only grows a conscience when she stumbles upon a crate of children being trafficked as part of the arrangement struck by her two lovers and business associates.

THIS IS THE CHARACTER YOU ARE BUILDING YOUR STORY UPON?

While the daughter is innocent, The Mother is a morally bankrupt and opportunistic killer who decided she had one line that she wouldn’t cross while pregnant with a baby that came from one of TWO morally bankrupt and opportunistic men. This is a tall order for the audience to proceed within a redemption story that only decides to focus on the potential of a reunification with her daughter and not whether she deserves it.

While the script and the lead character’s motivations and moral compass are very suspect, I find it hard to blame the movie’s lack of success on lead actress Jennifer Lopez. Known for her incredible work ethic, Lopez seemed to put the fullest extent of her abilities into this project despite not truly being the lead of something with this many action set pieces in her previous work. She is believable in her character’s skill set and does some of her better work in the film opposite Lucy Paez as her daughter Zoe where they bond slowly over several survivalist training sessions. I would not be shocked if this could be one of many action films for Lopez in the next 5 years as she always keeps in impressive shape and seems to have the tools to manage the more intensive workload.

Power star Omari Hardwick, Emmy-winning The Sopranos star Edie Falco, and recent Oscar-Nominee Paul Raci ( Sound of Metal ) did the best they could with minimal screen time and weak dialogue, but unfortunately, the best casted movies can be sunk by a wayward script. The only performances I can’t seem to understand are that of the two villains played by Gael Garcia Bernal & Joseph Fiennes who ranged from cringy to bored as their characters didn’t have much to work with before the cameras rolled.

Director Niki Caro, who started her career incredibly well with the critical success of 2002’s Whale Rider and 2005’s North Country , seemed to also struggle to keep this story on the tracks despite her best efforts. Some of the fight choreography was rough and some of the edits seemed rushed, but there are several instances in the film, especially in the Alaska scenes, where she does a solid job connecting performance with gorgeous backdrops and well-staged animal work.

Overall, The Mother would be a complete disaster if the talent in front of the camera and behind didn’t put enough effort to manage something barely watchable. Lopez will survive this and should look for more action vehicles in the future, but the screenwriters might need to do some soul searching after this one.

Watch The Mother If You Like

The Old Guard

MVP of Netflix’s The Mother

Jennifer Lopez as The Mother.

Despite not getting much help from the script, Lopez seemed to tackle this project head-on and put in a great effort for her action film future. Much like Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, and many other talented awards-level actresses before her, Lopez seems to have the technical and physical gifts for action set pieces to accompany her dramatic abilities that can shine in the right project (I.E., Selena, Hustlers, Out of Sight ).

Therefore, the upcoming Netflix Original movie Atlas is now high up on our radar.

PLAY, PAUSE, OR STOP?

While I gave STRONG consideration for a “Stop” on this one, I think there are just enough positive takeaways that work in the face of a sometimes brutal piece of writing. J-Lo fans have been through worse and still persist.

Did you enjoy The Mother on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.

Andrew Morgan is a film critic & podcaster with 20 years of experience on the sets & offices of film & television. Current podcast host of the entertainment review show, Recent Activity. He lives in the Northeast of the United States.

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Sophie Turner is a thieving single mother in Joan trailer

The CW drama is inspired by a true story.

Samantha is a writer based in Los Angeles. Television is her one true love, and she tweets about it. A lot.

Joan will do whatever it takes for her daughter ... even swallow a diamond.

EW has the exclusive trailer for the upcoming CW series Joan , which stars Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner as the titular character. Inspired by a true story, the show follows Joan, a single mother struggling to take care of herself and her child. To quote Joan in the trailer, "I need cash now."

But the question becomes: What will Joan do to get that cash that she needs so terribly? The answer is steal. Joan finds herself in the business of stealing jewelry, specifically.

The show is based on the real life of Joan Hannington, who was known as "the Godmother" in areas of the British criminal underworld. Let's just say that being a diamond thief was only the start of her criminal journey in 1980s London.

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The series marks Turner's first onscreen project in two years and a rare new scripted series for The CW, a network that has canceled the majority of its scripted shows in recent years.

Watch the full trailer for Joan above.

Joan premieres Wednesday, Oct. 2 on The CW.

‘The Deliverance’ Review: Lee Daniels Directs a Demonic-Possession Movie in Which the Real Demons Are Personal (and Flamboyant)

Andra Day plays a tormented and abusive single mother fighting the devil in herself. Then the real one shows up.

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The Deliverance. Andra Day as Ebony in The Deliverance. Cr. Aaron Ricketts/Netflix © 2024

As a filmmaker, Lee Daniels tends to get slagged off on for being flamboyantly garish and over-the-top. Some of that is deserved, but the truth is that when he’s cooking on all cylinders Daniels is a gifted filmmaker. “ The Deliverance ” is the sixth feature he has directed, and I’ve been a fan of three of them: “Precious” (2009), his extraordinary tale of a stunted inner-city teenager’s escape from her domestic hell; “The Paperboy” (2012), a bold and unnerving Southern gothic noir; and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (2021), a musical-political biopic that, while flawed, did a superb job of channeling its subject’s complicated ferocity.

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Ebony, whose temper has gotten her jail time, struggles with alcohol but seems, these days, more sober than not. Yet even when she isn’t drinking, we see her smack Dre in the mouth at the dinner table because he spoke up about wanting milk, accusing her of being too cheap to buy it (she says that he’s lactose intolerant but she’s never been to a doctor about it). Is Ebony the film’s equivalent of Mary, the monster mother played by Mo’Nique in “Precious”? Far from it, yet there’s an overlap. She’s a mother who’s been coarsened, at times, into meanness. She’s also quite protective, unleashing her hellion wrath on a teen bully down the block.

What Daniels wants us to see is that Ebony is a conduit for forces of oppression — economic and racial — that have dogged her life and turned it into a daily pressure cooker. The movie makes no excuses for her, but it does show us that her demons overlap with society’s. And Day, with a face of expressive misery and the energy of an imploding firecracker, portrays her as a shrewd fusion of harridan and victim. Mo’Nique is actually on hand here — she plays the DCS officer who oversees Ebony like a prim detective, looking for any sign that she’s messing up and should therefore have her kids taken away.

For all of Day’s searing anger, the showboat performance in “The Deliverance” is the one given by Glenn Close as Berta, Ebony’s white mother, who has come to live with them. Berta is a reformed junkie who found Jesus and is now going through chemo, which has left her head with nothing but scraggly wisps on top. But she wears wigs of showy blonde curls and goes out in revealing tops, flirting like mad. Berta is at war with her daughter, but she also, you know, cares . And it’s fun to see Glenn Close cut loose, in what is actually a rather well-thought-out performance, even if the character makes her Mamaw in “Hillbilly Elegy” look understated.

The kids start doing weird things. Dre bangs on the basement door and then stands there like a zombie. At school, all three engage in a bizarre acting out that involves bodily fluids. Is this a projection of their suffering from domestic abuse? Or are they being taken over by spirits? Yes and yes, and that’s supposed to be the film’s intrigue. But once the devil actually takes over, and an exorcist (excuse me, I meant an apostle , played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor from “Origin”) shows up, all in order to perform an exorcism (excuse me, I meant a deliverance , which turns out to be the exact same thing), Daniels reaches into the bag of levitating, skin-mottling, cracking-spider-limb tricks that have been propelling this genre for decades. The twist is that Ebony ends up squaring off against herself, literally facing down her own demons. But it turns out those demons were only halfway interesting when they were real.

Reviewed online, Aug. 15, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 112 MIN.

Production: A Netflix release of a Tucker Tooley Entertainment, Lee Daniels Entertainment, Turn Left production. Producers: Lee Daniels, Tucker Tooley, Pamela Oas Williams, Jackson Nguyen, Todd Crites. Executive producers: Jackie Shenoo, Hilary Shor, Greg Renker, Gregoire Gensollen.
Crew: Director: Lee Daniels. Screenplay: David Coggeshall, Elijah Bynum. Camera: Eli Arenson. Editor: Stan Salfas. Music: Lucas Vidal.
With: Andra Day, Glenn Close, Mo’Nique, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Anthony B. Jenkins, Miss Lawrence, Demi Singleton, Tasha Smith, Omar Epps, Caleb McLaughlin.

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COMMENTS

The Mother movie review & film summary (2023)
The Mother. The "movie star," that mysterious creature whose blinding charisma pulls everyone into its irresistible orbit, is becoming an endangered species. That makes Jennifer Lopez —a movie star par excellence —the onscreen equivalent of a majestic snow leopard. Lopez can easily carry a film on her own, and her latest project, "The ...
The Mother (2023)
A deadly female assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men. Netflix. Watch The Mother with a subscription on Netflix ...
'The Mother' Review: Are You My Sniper?
One of the film's guilty pleasures becomes anticipating when a mansplainer will get hushed. Eric Milner/Netflix. By Lisa Kennedy. May 11, 2023. The Mother. Directed by Niki Caro. Action ...
'The Mother' Review: Jennifer Lopez Anchors an Inflated Action Movie
The Mother. 'The Mother' Review: As a Military Sniper Who Comes Out of Hiding to Protect Her Daughter, Jennifer Lopez Anchors an Inflated Action Movie. Reviewed online, May 10, 2023. MPA ...
The Mother
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023. With way too many flaws, a predictable plot, and generic and poorly developed villains, The Mother is an emotionless story and a waste of an action ...
'The Mother' Review: Jennifer Lopez in Niki Caro's Netflix Thriller
The Mother. The Bottom Line Elevated trash. Release date: Friday, May 12. Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, Gael García Bernal. Director: Niki Caro ...
The Mother Review: Netflix Thriller Is Fun, Not on Purpose
May 11, 2023 9:02 PM EDT. N ot since Stella Dallas has a mother made so many selfless sacrifices for her daughter. Not since Taken has a protective parent fended off so many rotten baddies. Mush ...
The Mother (2023)
The Mother: Directed by Niki Caro. With Jennifer Lopez, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Joseph Fiennes. While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left earlier in life.
'The Mother' Review': Jennifer Lopez In Netflix Action Thriller From
But Caro holds the reins tight and has keenly told a peculiar story that will likely stick in the mind. Title: The Mother. Distributor: Netflix. Release date: May 12, 2023. Director: Niki Caro ...
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck score a split decision with 'The Mother
One of Hollywood's most famous power couples score a split decision starring in separate thrillers hitting the market the same day, as Ben Affleck's lower-profile "Hypnotic" significantly ...
The Mother (2023) Review and Ending Explained
The Mother (2023) Review and Plot Summary. Lopez plays "Mother," a former military operative and veteran of back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with forty confirmed kills and an accurate sniper rifle from at least 1,300 meters away. Just after her last military operation, Mother went to work for Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal ...
The Mother review: Why isn't Jennifer Lopez a huge action star
The Mother is the second straight-to-streaming Jennifer Lopez action movie this year, following the Prime Video action comedy Shotgun Wedding. While The Mother goes for more emotional depth ...
The Mother Review: A Solid Action Drama With A Standout Jennifer Lopez
The Mother. The Mother is a Netflix movie directed by Niki Caro, based on a story drafted by Misha Green, and stars Jennifer Lopez. Lopez stars as a former assassin on the run who comes out of hiding to save the daughter she had given away years prior. The film was released in May 2023.
The Mother
The Mother Review. In order to protect her newborn daughter, The Mother (Jennifer Lopez) - a lethal ex-military sniper on the run from dangerous arms dealers Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal ...
'The Mother' review: Jennifer Lopez and all the mothers out there
Jennifer Lopez in "The Mother," 2023. Just in time for Mother's Day, Jennifer Lopez stars in "The Mother," the ideal tribute to devoted mothers everywhere. If only. Instead, this R-rated Netflix ...
The Mother review
Jump forward 12 years and The Mother is living in the wilds of Alaska, having given up her baby girl for adoption to keep her safe. Her only friend at the FBI, agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick), warns ...
The Mother Reviews Are Here, And Critics Are Saying The Same Thing
Let's get to the critics, starting with CinemaBlend's review of The Mother. Our own Mike Reyes rates the movie just 2 stars out of 5, saying Lopez proves herself as an action lead, but the ...
REVIEW: "The Mother" (2023)
REVIEW: "The Mother" (2023) May 12, 2023 by Keith Garlington. 12. I'm up for seeing Jennifer Lopez go full-action heroine just as much as anyone. And that's what we get in director Niki Caro's new film "The Mother". Written by the trio of Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig, this made for streaming genre feature gives the ...
The Mother (2023 film)
The Mother is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by Niki Caro with a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig, from a story by Green.The film stars Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, and Gael García Bernal.It is about a former US army operative (Lopez) who partners with an FBI agent to rescue her teenage daughter after she is ...
The Mother
3. TVJerry. May 25, 2023. Several variations on this plot have been released in the last few years: A skilled spy/agent (Jennifer Lopez) has to come out of hiding to rescue a loved one (in this case, her surly estranged daughter). This requires the usual action scenes, as well as tender drama moments.
The Mother Summary and Synopsis
The Mother: plot summary, featured cast, reviews, articles, photos, and videos. ... The Mother is a Netflix movie directed by Niki Caro, based on a story drafted by Misha Green, and stars Jennifer Lopez. Lopez stars as a former assassin on the run who comes out of hiding to save the daughter she had given away years prior. The film was released ...
The Mother Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 2 ): Kids say ( 1 ): Jennifer Lopez carries this movie in a physical role that asks her to tumble down hills, face off with wolves, and get hit by cars. But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of ...
Should You Watch 'The Mother'? Review of Jennifer Lopez's New Netflix Movie
Playing with the theme of the weekend, Netflix has released The Mother, a new action thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a former special forces sniper who finds herself fleeing dangerous men from her past after informing on them to the FBI. Pregnant with a child conceived by one of these dangerous men, the character only known as The Mother is ...
Sophie Turner is a thieving single mother in Joan trailer
Inspired by a true story, the show follows Joan, a single mother struggling to take care of herself and her child. To quote Joan in the trailer, "I need cash now."
'The Deliverance': In Lee Daniels' Movie, the Demons Are Personal
The watchable part of the movie is its portrayal of the family, which is very Lee Daniels.Andra Day, so potent as Billie Holiday, plays Ebony, a single mother struggling to raise three kids ...
Reviews: What Do Critics Think of Mother Play on Broadway?
The world premiere of Mother Play by Paula Vogel officially opened April 25 via Second Stage Theater, and the reviews are rolling in. The production began performances April 3 at the company's ...

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Table of Contents

Is Hector Zoe’s father?

Is Adrian Zoe’s father?

What did Mother try to make a deal with the FBI?

How does Mother save Zoe?

Does Mother regain custody of Zoe?

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