Directed by Babak Nijafi

Starring – Taraji P Henson, Neal McDonough, Danny Glover

THE PLOT – Mary (Henson) is a successful hitwoman working for an organized crime family in Boston. However, her life is completely shifted when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes wrong, leaving the boy orphaned with only Mary to protect him.

Rated R for graphic violence and minimal adult language

THE POSITIVES

– Brief runtime of 82 minutes that really keeps the focus of the story grounded, and limits much downtime in between.

– Henson’s precise performance that gives way to Mary’s gritty and ferocious side. We’ve seen Taraji playing a badass before, but this role feels like breakthrough territory for the actress, establishing her as a possible new face of action annihilation.

– An exciting shoot-em-up finale that finally gives us light into Mary’s particularly gifted set of skills. This, as well as the 70’s Blacksploitation introduction felt like the only proof of the film that I was promised from a light-hearted atmospheric trailer.

– I feel that the set pieces and interior backdrops articulately channeled the personalities and backstories of Mary and her entire supporting cast. For Mary, the guns being hidden behind walls of vibrant decoration hint at the kind of double life that she leads.

– The sporadic action sequences do hit when they finally appear, bringing with them ruthless impact in sound mixing that only magnifies the dire urgency of the situation.

THE NEGATIVES

– There is simply no first act in this film. When the movie begins, it feels like we have walked into a situation that has been building for ten prior minutes. Further proof of this is Mary just appearing without any kind of build or impact for her appearance that gets us psyched.

– Because of the bone-headed choice NOT to exploit this Blacksploitation direction, the film settles for being a bland, generic action presentation that never sticks around long enough to leave a memorable impact.

– For a movie called ‘Proud Mary’, the screenplay cares so little about her. When she’s not splitting screen time with her newly adopted youth, the majority of scenes focus on her adversaries. I appreciate building equal ground here between protagonist and antagonist, but I feel like this film was a huge missed opportunity in getting to know Mary the person before she became this hit-for-hire.

– The fight choreography is virtually non-existent, opting instead for gun fights for the majority. When we do see hand-to-hand combat, the edits are very quick and choppy, making Henson’s believability that much more taxing by the minute.

– This film takes itself far too seriously. Much of this problem feeds into my second problem with the film, but action films become a problem first-and-foremost when I’m not having fun, and ‘Proud Mary’s’ biggest undoing is sticking with a formula that only until recently had re-defined the genre (John Wick).

5/10