Review: Sweet Girl Is Too Sweet For An Action Film
After his wife dies from cancer, Cooper (Jason Momoa) will stop at nothing to put an end to the pharmaceutical company that could’ve potentially saved his late wife’s life. With his daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) by his side, he must evade the police and the assassins after him if he hopes to avenge his wife.
On paper, Sweet Girl seems like it could be a great action movie. Father and daughter trying to avenge the death of their wife/mother by staying two steps ahead of the authorities and working to bring down the big organization that put their profits ahead of human life, what more could you ask for? The execution unfortunately doesn’t do the plot justice. The father daughter dynamic between Momoa and Merced never feels organic and the action scenes feel forced and stilted, as well. Instead of developing the relationship and seamlessly incorporating the action scenes, the movie had no flow resulting in an overall choppy experience.
It is also never fully explained how the assassins and the cops were able to track the duo down so easily. Every time I thought we would get the answer, the subject would change to something else yet they always just seemed to show up and throw another wrench in the plans.
Momoa and Meced do well with what they have to work with, but neither performance can save this movie. Lex Scott Davis leads the band of FBI agents and while her character was added to the film to help the audience sympathize for Cooper and Rachel, her character, too, just felt unrealistic.
With that being said, I will admit, I never saw the ending twist coming. Typically, you can see the groundwork being laid out, but director Brian Mendoza does a nice job keeping it under wraps. The audience remains so focused on other aspects of the story that the twist feels like it comes out of nowhere. The twist does come too late to save the overall film.
Don’t get me wrong, Sweet Girl is not a terrible movie, but it is not a great action movie. If you were expecting an action movie that would keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish this is not it. If you are looking for a movie to just put on in the background on a rainy night, I would definitely recommend this movie. If you are looking for a movie that will keep you entertained from start to finish, I would pick something else.
Grade: C