By Skylla Mumana | Reporter
In need of a dinner flick? Want something generic to watch in between classes or use to de-stress? Well look no further, because the movie “Sweet Girl” is just one click away on Netflix.
“Sweet Girl” is an American action-thriller film starring Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced. The film takes place in modern-day Pittsburgh and follows the story of Ray Cooper – played by Momoa – who is a devoted family man and widowed father seeking justice after his wife falls victim to the greed and loftiness of a big pharmaceutical company and its money-hungry CEO. In pursuit of justice he starts seeking out the truth, leading him to unravel a web of corruption and go on the run with his daughter Rachel Cooper, played by Merced.
The film is rated R and was released in Aug. on Netflix. The film was produced by Brian Andrew Mendoza, a notable writer with a lucrative career in entertainment and production, spanning over 20 years. This was Mendoza’s directorial debut as he belongs to the production company Pride of Gypsies, which was one of the main companies working on the film.
Pride of Gypsies is a production company founded by Momoa in 2010. The company has worked on multiple projects such as “Frontier,” Carhartt Fall’s first women’s national TV campaign, “Road to Paloma” and much more. With a love for filmmaking and an atypical approach to production, the company is known for its innovation and holistic editing.
Overall, despite it being highly entertaining, there were major plot holes and production elements that couldn’t be overlooked by viewers.
The sound effects within certain scenes for example, felt unrealistic and overly exaggerated. This made the audio feel as if it were meant for a video game rather than an action movie. Any time a knife came out, I felt as if someone was pressing a button on a video game controller for an action move.
Alongside that, there was little character development, with exception to Momoa and Merced’s characters. Time constraints may have played into this, but it left me feeling as if there was something missing, or that the side characters could have contributed to the storyline more. A lot of main points to the plot are revealed at the end, however those points could have been implemented earlier on in the plot and would have allowed for the storyline to flow smoother.
Fort the most part, the plot twists throughout the film were reasonable and surprisingly shocking. Revenge tropes usually fall back onto a generic, standard plot theme that leaves an audience with the ability to predict any and every ending. “Sweet Girl” however was unique, because while the villains were obvious, their actions and reactions were not. This gave it a boost in the shock department, and consistently set up an audience to try and predict what each villain who came in Merced’s way was going to do next.
The ending was the real kicker, and while it excited me it was also a bit disappointing due to the lack of explanation. It’s not as if you can’t infer what happened, but because there was no explanation, it almost made no sense for the ending to have been played out like it did. It was like I was craving answers after I was only given a taste.
Overall, these plot holes and mishaps unfortunately brought down the quality of the film as a whole, and made it seem highly unrealistic. While this is a work of fiction and it should be thought of as such, it definitely could have aligned some elements within the plot so that it would at least make sense to the audience.
If you’re wanting a memorable movie that will leave you wanting more, then this may not be for you. If you’re into raw action and visual effects, then this movie will be right up your alley.
