With a tag line that reads,”Payback is a Mother” you know what you’re in for when one teams up the savvy Gabrielle Union with Director, James McTeigue, know for his films V for Vandetta, Star Wars and The Matrix.
Mother’s Day always seems to deliver one of these Halle Berry ‘Kidnap’ genre films/domestic thriller/call it what you want. This time, Shaun (Union) has just inherited her father’s house following his tragic death. Shaun’s about to list it with a realtor, but first, she and her children Glover (Seth Carr) and Jasmine (Ajiona Alexis, who can’t seem to remove her ear buds to the real world) have to visit the residence and pack it up. In Wisconsin.
With little understanding of life outside the big city Glover asks his mother what an ‘acre’ is. The three of them are in a car together and nobody wanted to go the big house in the country, which Glover nicknames a ‘fortress’ after seeing it’s security codes, bullet proof frosted windows, and apparent secrets.
But when four (really goofy) thugs appear in search of something in the fortress, Shaun and her children are taken hostage. Like a reverse Panic Room and where Jodie Foster went to hide, this family has to face the bad dudes head on.
The ring leader, Eddie (Billy Burke) barks lame commands at his henchmen, before turning to Union with the words “Your done. A woman. At the mercy of a stranger.” Ey yi yi! Eye roll. #Time’s Up!
At about the fifty minute point the film improves since the beginning was a quasi adoration of Shaun’s father and his memorabilia. As an audience, we’re anxious to get on with it…we know what’s coming. By comparison, and in a Halle Berry film, we have immediate impact of Berry’s quintessential whining against the urgency of her situation at hand (Kidnap, The Call). Nobody does psycho victim like Berry.
At one point, and just before Union gets all Ninja mom, she snuggles her shaking children and declares “We’re safe.” Sure.Easy for you to say. But we’re not. We still have to watch the rest of the film!! The movie’s only salvation is the message as clear as can be that nothing can stop a mother from saving her kids. The lesson to me…I’ll never hate a Halle Berry film again.