ava (2020) review
Seems we can’t go a year without a new Black Widow-lite female assassin film. Lucy, Salt, Hanna, Red Sparrow and Atomic Blonde are just a few of the recent examples. I get it. It’s fascinating and fun to uncover the mindset and fractured psyche of an individual who’s chosen such an unsavory lifestyle. At least it should be. Humans are also hard-wired into the desire to engage with the mysterious and beautiful stranger. With “shadowy assassin” as tired a trope as it is, it piques my interest when a film tries something a bit different with it. Ava, in showcasing the titular professional killer in her decidedly uncool and mundane moments makes such an attempt. An assassin with regular people problems and family drama? A female Martin Blank? There could’ve been something there. Sadly, it all feels poorly conceived and barely thought out. It doesn’t help that the acting of Ava’s family members and ex-husband, played by Common, feel stilted and from a different movie. Ava, directed by Tate Taylor, also suffers greatly from the suspension of disbelief required to buy pixie-like Jessica Chastain effortlessly dispatching assailants 2x her size with fairly rudimentary martial arts. Action scenes are nonetheless fairly well-shot and feature a handful of sequences that feel fresh - high praise considering the amount of bloat within the dime-a-dozen action thriller genre. One first act sequence stands out for the wrong reasons, however. Ava struts high-heeled through a war-zone of heavily armed soldiers taking each down nonchalantly and unconvincingly. Plot armor is the only reason she does so without being shot in the head. The film starts to feel schizophrenic and silly in the second half focusing too much on boring love triangles and character setups that never payoff. Ava is at its best during the first act when it focuses on Chastain’s skill as an assassin. Casting a winking-at-the-camera Geena Davis of Long Kiss Goodnight fame as Ava’s mom was a nice touch. Watch that movie instead.
Ava receives a score of 5/10 for everyone. It doesn’t do anything to stand out in the overstuffed female assassin genre and the family subplot is tired and uninteresting.