Proud Mary

Proud Mary

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Jahi Di'Allo Winston, Billy Brown, Danny Glover

Directed by Babak Najafi

The Story:
Mary (Taraji P. Henson) is an hit-woman for a mob family in Boston led by Benny (Danny Glover), with Mary's former boyfriend Tom (Billy Brown) as his right hand man.  One day she's assigned to kill a man, and after completing the deed she sees a young boy in the house.  Distraught, she leaves the boy alive.

A year later, the boy, Danny (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) is working for a European mobster, when Mary finds him again.  She rescues him but in the process creates a new war between her family's faction and the European one, leading to a tangled web of deceit and lies that threatens Mary and everything she's worked so hard for.

The Synopsis:
There's been some fantastic female-led action films lately: "Wonder Woman," "Atomic Blonde," and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" immediately come to mind.  With Hollywood filled with highly capable female action stars - Gal Gadot, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson - there's no shortage of exciting, female-centric action films.  Taraji P. Henson more than deserves to be named alongside those aforementioned female heroines, and she deserves much better than "Proud Mary," a film that's only better than a typical bargain-basement deal due to Henson's presence and performance.

Loosely based off the 1980 action film "Gloria," "Proud Mary" focuses on Mary, who is the best hit-woman in the business.  She works for the seemingly likable Benny, but there's a dark undercurrent of mistrust there as well.  Then there's Tom, her former flame who now seems to be her biggest competition, or something like that.  The story is never fully developed about what these characters are going through or what they have in common - we're just supposed to know they all belong to a mobster family in Boston (what they're peddling is anyone's guess), and they're supposedly the most feared family in town, despite the fact that it seems there's only like ten people on their payroll.

So Mary is assigned to kill a man, but finds out afterward that he has a son.  She feels guilt for leaving him an orphan, and a year later tracks him down and takes him under her wing in an odd maternal way that doesn't seem to fit Mary's modus operandi. Yet it's these scenes - between a stern yet caring Henson and typical younger teenage rebellious Winston - that are the best in the film.  The rest is just a very oddly edited film that seems to have been done by high schoolers who have no clue what they're doing.

The story is so incredibly simple and predictable it's laughable.  There's no big twists or suspense, you know what's coming a mile away, and it's the story you've seen so many times before.  Again, Taraji P. Henson deserves better than this drivel, but at least she tries her hardest to make it somewhat entertaining.  Her action isn't as impressive as Theron's in "Atomic Blonde," but it gets the job done.  Even if the final pivotal scene of her barreling through a seemingly endless barrage of men was shot in such utter darkness you can't tell what the heck is happening.  Then there's scenes with Danny Glover where the sun is shining in the window so bright, it actually drowns Glover's face out and you can't even see his expressions.  Throw in some of the worst edits imaginable (the film cuts so many times you get a headache trying to keep up with it, and it's not even done in an artistic way like the "Bourne" series), and you've got all the ingredients for a big ole suck salad.

I saw this movie a few hours ago, and even now I find it difficult to remember anything that really happened.  It was so plain and forgettable, it's really sad because it was such a waste of Taraji P. Henson's talent.

The Summary:
When it comes to action films, you need to do something to elevate it beyond a dime-store DVD bin, but that's not what happened in "Proud Mary," a film that Taraji P. Henson should never be proud of.

The Score: D+