Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced star as a father and daughter seeking justice in this self-serious actioner. <\/p>
By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Friday, 20 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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It\u2019s apparent from the outset of new Netflix<\/a> action flick Sweet Girl<\/a> that this is a film that takes itself very seriously indeed. Within the first few minutes, we\u2019re treated to an incredibly portentous voiceover, the first stirrings of a rather overbearing score, and a slowed-down, sombre rendition of Sweet Child O\u2019 Mine. Whatever else, it\u2019s not an opening that gives the impression this is going to be a laugh-a-minute affair.<\/p>\n Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Brian Andrew Mendoza, this rather muddled film is ostensibly about Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) and his daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) as they embark on a quest to get revenge on the people they believe responsible for the death of Ray\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n That list of wrongdoers is initially headed up by Simon Keeley (Justin Bartha), the CEO of the fictional BioPrime Pharmaceutical company, whose decision to pull a cheap and accessible drug from the market had eradicated any hope Ray\u2019s wife had of making a recovery from her critical illness. An early \u2013 unintentionally funny \u2013 scene sees Ray confront Keeley as he appears on a television phone-in, telling him in an irate growl that he will hunt him down and murder him should his wife die. It\u2019s one of many mortifyingly overwrought moments in a film full of them.<\/p> Anyway, all of this is essentially prologue, as following the untimely murder of a VICE journalist who tries to pass on vital BioPrime information to Ray, the action jumps forward two years, with Ray and Rachel kickstarting their vigilante mission in earnest. In the melee of events that follow, the BioPrime conspiracy becomes increasingly convoluted, a pair of FBI agents set out to catch Ray and Rachel, and a charismatic hitman emerges on their tail \u2013 as their mission looks increasingly impossible to complete.<\/p>\n To begin with, it\u2019s all just a little dull. The plot moves forward fairly quickly \u2013 with several time jumps in the opening stages \u2013 but never really settles into any kind of rhythm, with the clumsy setup preventing any real momentum from gathering. Momoa is a brooding presence as Ray, but there isn\u2019t any discernible chemistry between him and his supposed daughter, with their dynamic never coming across as particularly engaging or believable. You don\u2019t get the impression that these characters are real, living people that exist outside the movie \u2013 which makes it that much more difficult to care a jot about what happens to them. Meanwhile, the dialogue is uninspired and often exposition-heavy, the action set-pieces are distinctly mediocre, and the pharmaceutical conspiracy plot is half-baked and not particularly interesting. Above all, it\u2019s just not really any fun.<\/em><\/p>\n\n And then, about 80 minutes into the film, comes the twist. I won\u2019t spoil the nature of the reveal in this review (go here to have the Sweet Girl ending<\/a> explained), but suffice it to say that I was in two minds about whether to angrily turn off the television in protest or to laugh uproariously. For a start, the film hadn\u2019t really earned such an outlandish rug pull, but to be honest I struggle to think of a movie that could have pulled it off \u2013 for the simple reason that it just doesn\u2019t make much sense. The whole thing doesn\u2019t hang together, and it\u2019s particularly egregious given how seriously the film has taken itself up to that point \u2013 while it also makes it even more of a chore to then sit through the remaining 20 minutes or so of the runtime.<\/p>\n For a while, it seems that Sweet Girl will simply be an underwhelming and forgettable action thriller \u2013 and for the most part, it is those things \u2013 but the botched twist ensures it becomes something of a true disaster. Best give this one a miss.<\/p>\n Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced star as a father and daughter seeking justice in this self-serious actioner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3343,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/sweet-girl-review-netflix-action-flick-is-painfully-dull-then-outlandishly-daft-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced star as a father and daughter seeking justice in this self-serious actioner.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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