Lou
I dunno, is this a new obsession for me? Action movies with way too old stars? And in this case starring Allison Janney, who is old and very well known as the queen of sarcasm, not a mean right hook. Mostly I had another session of old movies on the streaming services, except for a couple of horror movies I might have watched if I was alone in the house. But I wasn’t terribly upset because I was seriously curious what Janney is capable of. EVERYONE does an action flick, so I wanted to see what this one looks like. Of note is a scene with President Reagan making his speech about Iran during the Contra Affair, and I was struck at the difference between that cognitively declined President, and another one we’re familiar with.
Beginning with some ominous music, dark clouds, and torrential rain, Lou strikes out from her front porch with only a shovel to walk fifteen feet into the deep woods of the northwest and reacquire a rusty old box from under the trees. She takes it back to the cabin, downs a ton of scotch, burns some heavily redacted paperwork from out of the box, writes a letter, hides a ton of money in the freezer full of illegally killed venison and sits down to put a gun to her head. Well then. Gonna be a happy time I guess.
The movie does then veer off to more fully explain her situation, especially with her sweet but down on her luck renter next door with the young daughter and little patience for Lou’s orneriness. After the fuller setup including the renter this time, we see again Lou’s step by step plan to leave this mortal coil. Except of course she’s foiled and we begin to see she may have debilitating arthritis but she’s got interesting talents that I assume won’t be a right hook considering how far gone her hands are.
The renter’s daughter is kidnapped during the huge storm and the two hare off into the woods with Lou’s dog and a serious sniper rifle. They bond, sorta. Did I mention Lou being ornery? Janney does an excellent job making this character unlikeable, despite her taking off in arthritis agony rain and cold to help this person who doesn’t like her, and is often late with rent.
I will say there is a fight scene in which Lou goes all Andy Warhol with a soup can on the bad guy. I always enjoy new ways to brighten up a fight scene, and this one was overall about a B. Maybe a B+ with the soup can. I was satisfied how Janney’s character fared against a much younger, wanted for war crimes ex-Green Beret (back in the day that was a thing – think pre-natal Delta Force). After proving she can old actor fight as well as Tom Berener (withOUT taking off her shirt), Lou and the mom continue searching for the girl. The camera work throughout the movie is nothing special, but somehow I felt the cold and rain that was their constant companion.
Director Anna Foerster (Day After Tomorrow) handled Janney’s character really well, overall, I thought. Yes, she’s always well overmatched with opponents, but it’s the well oiled type of dangerously sarcastic characters she’s known for which helps sell the subterfuge part of her character. I didn’t get pulled out very often, and had a good enough time watching.
The very last fight scene does some interesting things with sound, but that was pretty much for a highlight. There are a couple of nifty surprises, especially near the end, and they all made enough sense to not feel intrusive.
Overall, I enjoyed watching it well enough. I didn’t find myself getting angry about something stupid on the screen, and there was no weirdly out of place stripping off of clothes (Berenger!). I’m a fan of action movies and I consider this one worth watching if you’re in the mood for fight scenes that aren’t massively over the top, and with a little more attempt at plot than normal.
Spoiler: The dog does not die.
Triggers: painful looking fight scenes, terrible parenting story
Available on: Netflix, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, AppleTV
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition
Oooo. I remember seeing this advertised. I didn’t know if I would like it. Now I must watch it soon. I am going to love watching an older woman kick butt. I think I will find it cathartic. Or at least fun. I think both Jannet and Smollett are fine actors and I will enjoy them sharing the screen.
Also: Thanks for letting me know the dog doesn’t die. 🙂
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