Momoa thriller ‘Sweet Girl’ packs brawn and brains
“Sweet Girl” may appear to be your average action-thriller, but it proves itself to be anything but.
Everything about its first hourplus would lead viewers to believe it’s a slick but relatively standard revenge flick about a man who makes some unfortunate decisions after being pushed to the brink. There are chases, shootouts, hand-to-hand combat and even an attempt to flee the authorities.
Then, just as “Sweet Girl” lulls you into a false sense of actionmovie security, it pulls the rug out from under you with a revelation that changes how everything that came before is perceived and adds an extra emotional layer to an already heartfelt story about a father trying to protect the only family he has left.
It’s one of the better-executed surprises you’ll see in an action movie that, in retrospect, was foreshadowed just enough that it didn’t come completely out of nowhere. M. Night Shyamalan would be proud.
The film begins by establishing how close Ray Cooper ( Jason Momoa) is with his daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) and his wife, who is hospitalized after a life-changing cancer diagnosis. She doesn’t make it, and both Ray and Rachel are left to mourn her loss while also seething with anger at the pharmaceutical company that delayed the release of an experimental and potentially life-saving drug.
After learning there might be other reasons why the drug didn’t reach the market in time, Ray sets out to make those he believes are responsible for his wife’s death pay. That forces him and Rachel to go on the run once some powerful people discover how he is attempting to upend an entire industry’s business model.
Momoa usually plays largerthan-life figures like Khal Drogo in “Game of Thrones” or Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe. In “Sweet Girl,” he’s just a working-class guy from Pittsburgh who happens to be jacked beyond belief. It’s a rare opportunity for Momoa to stretch as an actor, and he mostly pulls it off in between extremely violent fights.
For his directorial debut, Brian Andrew Mendoza displays real self-assuredness in his staging of large-scale action scenes.
One of the coolest tricks “Sweet Girl” pulls off is making sure none of the action feels gratuitous. It’s all rooted in Ray’s desire to keep Rachel safe and make sure the people he feels destroyed his family are brought to justice. One could quarrel with Ray’s methods, but everything he does at least makes sense for the character and informs those well-crafted set pieces.
Audiences may leave “Sweet Girl” most impressed with Merced, who is Ray’s reluctant moral center. She loves her dad, but she also knows he’s dangerously close to going too far. Merced and Momoa have great chemistry, and she proves she might have a future as an action hero in several fight scenes.
There’s little subtlety in “Sweet Girl.” Pharmaceutical companies prioritize profits over lives and have an uncomfortably intimate relationship with health care companies and politics. Though it’s pretty heavy-handed, it’s still interesting to watch a big action movie try to grapple with complex themes.
The twist is also integral to how viewers will feel about Ray’s journey. It’s not exactly make or break, but it might force you to rewind a scene or two to make sure you understand what just happened and then pause to reflect on what that means for the rest of the film.
This is an easy one to recommend thanks to Momoa and Merced’s clear bond, some objectively cool action sequences and that well-executed gamechanger.