--- title: The Mother Review: Netflix Thriller Is Fun, Not on Purpose description: Netflix's new Jennifer Lopez movie is too self-serious, but that doesn't mean that watching it under the right conditions isn't a good time. canonical: https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-05-12T01:02:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:17.275Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Thanks to J.Lo, 'The Mother' Is Fun in Spite of Itself og:description: 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? og:url: https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb41c814e3cc54ea/698a3ccd22fb853aa4e2eaba/MTHR_20211117_22302R.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jennifer Lopez as The Mother og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thanks to J.Lo, 'The Mother' Is Fun in Spite of Itself twitter:description: 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? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb41c814e3cc54ea/698a3ccd22fb853aa4e2eaba/MTHR_20211117_22302R.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Mother_ Plays It Too Straight—But J.Lo's Appeal Is Eternal > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic May 12, 2023 1:02 AM UTC  Jennifer Lopez as The Mother Jennifer Lopez as The MotherEric Milner/Netflix  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic May 12, 2023 1:02 AM UTC Not 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](https://time.com/6074121/bennifer-reunion-therapists/) 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?  Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez, a mother and daughter reunited under less than ideal circumstances Doane Gregory/Netflix **Read more:** [_The 16 Best J. Lo Movies of All Time_](https://time.com/6146965/jennifer-lopez-best-movies/) 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](https://time.com/5956164/oscar-nominations-2021-to-watch/)) 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.  J.Lo, doing the most Ana Carballosa/Netflix 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](https://time.com/5758551/jennifer-lopez-best-red-carpet-fashion/) 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/"},"headline":"The Mother Plays It Too Straight—But J.Lo's Appeal Is Eternal","datePublished":"2023-05-12T01:02:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:17.275Z","description":"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?","url":"https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/","keywords":["movies","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb41c814e3cc54ea/698a3ccd22fb853aa4e2eaba/MTHR_20211117_22302R.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb41c814e3cc54ea/698a3ccd22fb853aa4e2eaba/MTHR_20211117_22302R.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jennifer Lopez as The Mother","caption":"Jennifer Lopez as The Mother","creditText":"Eric Milner/Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6278178/the-mother-review-netflix/","name":"The Mother Plays It Too Straight—But J.Lo's Appeal Is Eternal"}}]}] ```