I don't usually watch things without first referring to their page here for full cast info, and a plot preview. This time, I took the one sentence synopsis attached to my TV listings grid, and the fact that Kate Hudson and Craig Robinson (impressive in his guest role in the series "Mr. Robot") were in it as a sufficient attraction and that was a mistake, mostly because the synopsis implied it would be more like a caper film than it is, and did not adequately describe Hudon's struggling single mom role. This film's worst fault seems to be a lack of ambition on the parts of both the main characters and the writer/director. It has some surprises along the way, and the plot does eventually go in an unexpected direction; unfortunately, that direction is still boring.
I'm guessing Hudson took this job because she wanted to stretch her acting skills, and she succeeds at that far more than usual here, convincingly portraying a tired exploited white trash person with a low-class but not Southern accent supporting her 10ish-year-old son with uninspired exotic dancing in New Orleans. She is okay in the role, but the character is not as sympathetic as these women are usually written. When she eventually happens upon an unlikely opportunity to improve her station, she tries to go from exploited to exploiter, but her idea of economic climbing is penny-ante and lacking imagination. Evan Whitten has been associated with several very high quality TV productions in his brief career and is okay as her son, but was better in his recurring role in the "Mr. Robot" series.
The star of this was Korean actress Jeon Jong-seo AKA Jun Jong-Seo as Mona, and she gave a promising performance in her American debut. The film actually starts off well focusing on her escape from the asylum. The ability Mona displays suggests she is capable of big things but the situations she needs to use that ability in bog down into the trivial, and make you wonder why she even bothers. Another large fault of this film is there is virtually no backstory explaining how any of the main characters got to where we find them. In Mona's case, you wonder if her gift is superhuman but earthbound, or is she an alien? But you don't really wonder very long, and no effort is ever made to answer that question. We get a momentary glance at an intake form for the asylum that notes police had to intervene with her at 3 instances of violence, with no further description. I guess we are not expected to care, but I found it weak storytelling and wondered if the writer cared.
Another problem with the writing is that time seems to fly in this story, and not in a good way. Robinson's cop is traipsing around town chasing Hudson and "Mona" with a sturdy brace around his knee but no visible plaster cast or crutch just hours or at most a few days after he was made to shoot himself in the leg.
"Mona" is the kind of character that would tend to operate without an accomplice in other stories of this genre, doesn't really need one. Because of that, the presence of Hudson's character (and her big name in that role) seemed unnecessary, and Robinson's cop was plodding and expendable as well. The way the story ended felt like a setup for a sequel, and I would not necessarily mind seeing where "Mona" goes on her own initiative, wits and power, without the dead weight of those other characters. The "Mona" character and Jong-seo's portrayal are good enough to justify that.
I'm guessing Hudson took this job because she wanted to stretch her acting skills, and she succeeds at that far more than usual here, convincingly portraying a tired exploited white trash person with a low-class but not Southern accent supporting her 10ish-year-old son with uninspired exotic dancing in New Orleans. She is okay in the role, but the character is not as sympathetic as these women are usually written. When she eventually happens upon an unlikely opportunity to improve her station, she tries to go from exploited to exploiter, but her idea of economic climbing is penny-ante and lacking imagination. Evan Whitten has been associated with several very high quality TV productions in his brief career and is okay as her son, but was better in his recurring role in the "Mr. Robot" series.
The star of this was Korean actress Jeon Jong-seo AKA Jun Jong-Seo as Mona, and she gave a promising performance in her American debut. The film actually starts off well focusing on her escape from the asylum. The ability Mona displays suggests she is capable of big things but the situations she needs to use that ability in bog down into the trivial, and make you wonder why she even bothers. Another large fault of this film is there is virtually no backstory explaining how any of the main characters got to where we find them. In Mona's case, you wonder if her gift is superhuman but earthbound, or is she an alien? But you don't really wonder very long, and no effort is ever made to answer that question. We get a momentary glance at an intake form for the asylum that notes police had to intervene with her at 3 instances of violence, with no further description. I guess we are not expected to care, but I found it weak storytelling and wondered if the writer cared.
Another problem with the writing is that time seems to fly in this story, and not in a good way. Robinson's cop is traipsing around town chasing Hudson and "Mona" with a sturdy brace around his knee but no visible plaster cast or crutch just hours or at most a few days after he was made to shoot himself in the leg.
"Mona" is the kind of character that would tend to operate without an accomplice in other stories of this genre, doesn't really need one. Because of that, the presence of Hudson's character (and her big name in that role) seemed unnecessary, and Robinson's cop was plodding and expendable as well. The way the story ended felt like a setup for a sequel, and I would not necessarily mind seeing where "Mona" goes on her own initiative, wits and power, without the dead weight of those other characters. The "Mona" character and Jong-seo's portrayal are good enough to justify that.