STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Lila (Viola Davis) loses her son in a drive by shooting, and her life is turned upside down. Her life is then juggled between taking care of her other two sons, attending group therapy meetings and being fobbed off by the police. But then she meets Eve (Jennifer Lopez), a woman who lost a daughter in similar circumstances. Together, they set out to administer some street justice of their own until they track down those responsible for their kids killings. But as events roll on, Lila comes to suspect Eve may not be who she says she is.
Despite still being what you could call a household name, and even a brand in her own right with the JLo label, it does feel a little like Jennifer Lopez's name on a film won't make it quite the draw that it used to, with this struggling even to find its way onto DVD over here. She's attempting a more mature role here, now a little older, and so glamming down with no make up and very plain, grey clothing. Despite all this, she's still not a great actress though, and it shows here as much as anywhere, and so it's a comfort that the slightly more dramatically gifted Davis takes centre stage.
This really is a disposable, by the numbers effort, going through the motions in a really typical, clichéd 'ordinary people standing up to injustice' plot line, with nothing to make it really stand out or shine. This isn't helped by a slumberous, uneven pace, which struggles to establish an effective narrative flow, making it feel a bit incoherent. Feeling even more misplaced are some awkward attempts at humour, that feel completely out of place given the tone of the film, before building to a pretty nonsensical ending that seems to be trying to give the film some gravitas it doesn't have.
Even with the star power involved, it's really not too hard to see why this one sank without a trace. **
Lila (Viola Davis) loses her son in a drive by shooting, and her life is turned upside down. Her life is then juggled between taking care of her other two sons, attending group therapy meetings and being fobbed off by the police. But then she meets Eve (Jennifer Lopez), a woman who lost a daughter in similar circumstances. Together, they set out to administer some street justice of their own until they track down those responsible for their kids killings. But as events roll on, Lila comes to suspect Eve may not be who she says she is.
Despite still being what you could call a household name, and even a brand in her own right with the JLo label, it does feel a little like Jennifer Lopez's name on a film won't make it quite the draw that it used to, with this struggling even to find its way onto DVD over here. She's attempting a more mature role here, now a little older, and so glamming down with no make up and very plain, grey clothing. Despite all this, she's still not a great actress though, and it shows here as much as anywhere, and so it's a comfort that the slightly more dramatically gifted Davis takes centre stage.
This really is a disposable, by the numbers effort, going through the motions in a really typical, clichéd 'ordinary people standing up to injustice' plot line, with nothing to make it really stand out or shine. This isn't helped by a slumberous, uneven pace, which struggles to establish an effective narrative flow, making it feel a bit incoherent. Feeling even more misplaced are some awkward attempts at humour, that feel completely out of place given the tone of the film, before building to a pretty nonsensical ending that seems to be trying to give the film some gravitas it doesn't have.
Even with the star power involved, it's really not too hard to see why this one sank without a trace. **