Movie Review

After her military service, she’s left with few job prospects so she becomes a guard in Guantanamo and gets entangled, professionally and personally, with a few handsome arms dealers, Adrian (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector (Gael García Bernal).

A bit of this is revealed in a brief prologue, in which she gives birth and has to give up the baby before even holding her. It’s for everyone’s safety and her only wish is that the kid gets placed with the most boring, stable family out there – that and that FBI Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) sends updates on her birthdays.

There is a “Mamma Mia”-esque mystery about who the father is and an even bigger mystery about if this pregnancy was planned or expected or wanted. And all of this is very interesting in theory. But the movie itself is set 12 years later when Mother learns that the daughter (who does get a name, Zoe) is in danger. This brings her out of her glamorously rugged

Alaska retirement and back in action as a superhuman spy/assassin/one-woman army.

At first, Mother denies her Mother-hood to Zoe (Lucy Paez), whose foster parents get about as much character development and screen time as a couple in a cell phone commercial. This is supposed to be a big emotional journey for Mother and Zoe and the viewing audience, but I can’t say this movie ever really convinces you to care about this relationship, which is especially odd because there have been plenty of random pairings of adult assassins and non-blood relation children in movies that I’ve felt invested in.

“The Mother” just expects that you’re on board with some essential connection, which Paul Raci (nice to see him again on screen) tries his best to sell.

As expected, Lopez is an athletic and capable action hero (maybe too capable, but that could also be said of most of the guys out there, too). This is taken much more seriously than the over-the-top “Shotgun Wedding” and Caro and her filmmaking team ably capture

Fair: HH

Lopez in all her glory, whether walking through the Alaskan snow framed by a fur hood, jumping out of multi-story parking garages and sliding over cars in a chase, or dancing with Fiennes in a body hugging dress.

It’s a much better showcase for Caro as a director in this big budget arena than the live-action “Mulan” was.

Lopez’s output has been prolific lately as she and her closest collaborators continue to look for interesting projects for her, undeterred by any Hollywood or societally imposed ideas about movies a woman in her 50s should be making. Romantic comedies, action movies - they’re all fair game, which is great. You just wish the movies could match the ambition.

“The Mother,” a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “violence, some language and brief drug use.”