Ava   

     

Director: Tate Taylor
Year: 2020
Rating: 6.0

Well, I think I know what happened to the daughter that Geena Davis had in The Long Kiss Goodnight (one of my faves). Just like her mom, she grew up to be a professional assassin. Like mom, like daughter. Geena Davis plays the mother of Ava (Jessica Chastain), an employee of a secret organization that kills people. She is the best and displays these skills on numerous occasions. In this field of work though you don't retire with a gold watch. Her direct boss, John Malkovitch, loves her like a daughter but others in the organization (Colin Farrell) and his daughter (Diana Silvers) thinks she is slipping. Ava asks her targets why she has been sent to kill them - they usually are not sure - so she kills them anyway - but it is a sign of weakness.

 


Farrell decides her time is up and no gold watch. At the same time, her ex-boyfriend (Common) is deeply in hock to a gambling organization run by Toni (John Chen!) and she has to fix that. It is going to be a very busy night. Very standard hit person plot - at some point the killing begins to get to you and in the end the people who hire you always come after you. The film throws in some family drama that feels like slogging through a mud field - but its the action scenes that sell the film. A couple brutal fights and a good shootout keep the film afloat and I am never one to diss a female assassin film. There is always room for more. I was mainly disappointed that Geena didn't pull out a gun and start shooting.