It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a Jennifer Lopez movie for every mood. Her oeuvre spans the highs and lows of human existence, from the joys of finding love to the pain of leaving it behind. She’s made you cry with Selena, messed with your mind in The Cell and stolen more than your heart in Hustlers. Most famously, she’s a rom-com legend, including the hat trick of Maid in Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and Monster-in-Law. But as much fun as it is to watch Lopez fall in love, sometimes you just want to see her kick some ass.
We’ve got the perfect movie for that. Actually, we’ve got two.
First up is The Mother, a new thriller directed by Niki Caro about a military-trained sniper who comes out of hiding after more than a decade to protect the daughter she left behind. Lopez stars alongside a cast of dramatic heavy hitters including Gael García Bernal, Joseph Fiennes and Paul Raci, action mainstay Omari Hardwick and newcomer Lucy Paez, who plays her estranged kid Zoe.
This is Lopez at her fiercest: Ever wonder what it’s like to watch the pop icon drag a huge buck through the woods on a sled? Wish granted! Forced to leave her newborn daughter in the care of strangers after being attacked while pregnant — and while in the custody of the FBI — her character, known only as “the Mother” — retreats to the frozen wilds of Alaska to live out her days in solitude. Or so she thinks. When Zoe’s life is threatened by the same baddies who came after her 12 years earlier, this mama bear decides it’s time to act. That means taking out assailants with a sniper rifle, snowmobile chases through the backcountry, a mother-daughter survival training montage and more.
But what happens once the credits roll, and you want to live in the Jennifer Lopez–destroying-bad-men-as-a-mom universe a little longer? That’s where Part 2 of the double feature comes in. Why not go ahead and pair The Mother with Lopez’s original fighter: Slim Hiller in 2002’s Enough, which is also streaming on Netflix.
The two movies share vengeful mom DNA. Directed by Michael Apted, Enough stars Lopez as a charismatic diner waitress who’s swept off her feet in the ultimate meet cute. In Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell), Slim sees the future and family she never had as a kid growing up with a single mom after her dad took off. Their fairy-tale wedding gives way to a slew of happy moments: buying a dream house, playing on the beach with their young daughter Gracie (Tessa Allen), you get the idea. But the honeymoon comes to a screeching halt when Slim finds out that Mitch has been cheating on her. She confronts him, and he violently attacks her. Thus begins a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse as Slim tries to run from her nightmare husband, before finally realizing that the only way she and her daughter can live their lives in peace is to confront him — after mastering the art of self-defense, of course.
Helpless? Not this mother.
Need more movies to watch with your mom? Check out these Mother’s Day recommendations below:
