Proud Mary (2018)

[afterbite]

So, Proud Mary.

Saw it today. I expected something else based on the trailers, but this was a situation where instead of being unhappy with seeing a movie that was different than what I thought the movie was going to be, I bought into the new direction. It's not wall to wall action/killing, like I thought it was going to be. Instead, it unfolds slowly. There are multiple layers at play that reveal themselves as the movie progresses (e.g., Mary's relationship with her employer). The tension builds and builds throughout because you know something's going to go very, very wrong. You're left wondering when the hammer's going to drop and which hammer it's going to be. I wasn't expecting to spend so much time thinking about the relationships and symbolism, etc., in this movie before I bought a ticket. Despite making me have to think (ugh), I quite enjoyed this one. :)

Also - The child actor in this was outstanding. 

[cleo]

It's definitely not a perfect movie but I enjoyed it. Taraji and the kid were great. I found Danny Glover less so- like the bottom half of his face doesn't move.

I read one review that talked about the poor lighting and I agree, but I just accepted it and enjoyed the film.

I hope it gets positive attention for Taraji.

Fogerty is complaining about his song being used, but it was all done legally. Don't like it, don't sell the rights.

He should see the movie before jumping to conclusions.

[Enero]

The actor who played Danny was excellent as was Taraji. 

I did have to shake my head when Mary and Tom went to send a message to Benny’s rivals and it was  just the two of them handling such a big job. Where were all the those men who attempted to take down Mary during the final showdown? Cause those men could’ve been used when they went after the rival.  Also who drives their personal cars to a job where they’re  going to covertly take out a rival’s crew?

Did anyone else think Benny “taking in” Mary also included sexual abuse?

This had its issues, but I can’t say it wasn’t entertaining. 

[afterbite]

8 hours ago, Enero said:

Did anyone else think Benny “taking in” Mary also included sexual abuse?

I didn't get a sexual abuse vibe there, but I think the parallel is that he turned her into an assassin and made her feel like she was trapped in a life she didn't seem to enjoy. The movie seemed to play a lot with perfect life on the surface/ugly and rotten underneath. Mary has an amazing apartment but seems deeply depressed, for example. Glover's character shows his true colors in the end, but he's probably always made it clear what he thinks. He says they saved her and brought her into the family, with the clear implication that she'd be whoring on the streets if not for them. What he did, though, was in some ways no different than if that had happened. He brought her in, no doubt made her feel just how deeply indebted to him he thought she should be, and groomed her into becoming part of his organization. He said she was family, but that was just a way of trying to make her feel even more indebted over the shackles he'd placed on her.

Then you have Tom, who feels entitled to her. Who knows why they got together (I mean, he is a fine looking man, so there's that possible reason), but even after she's decided she wanted out of that relationship and that family, she's trapped. She cannot flee her oppressors, and her oppressors get to feel self-righteous about their savior-hood. She is forever bound to this man, too, playacting happy families and dealing with his delusion that they're just on a temporary break.

I spent the first half of the movie wondering why Mary looked like she was near tears every time she found herself in a situation where they were meeting with another group or talking about how to resolve the murder of Junior situation, and it wasn't until I realized that she wasn't really an equal member of that family but instead their perpetually indentured servant living in a surreal world where they treated her like part of the family until it was time for her to be their personal plaything like they all knew she really was. 

[wanderingstar]

On 1/12/2018 at 4:01 PM, afterbite said:

Also - The child actor in this was outstanding. 

 

On 1/13/2018 at 1:52 AM, Enero said:

The actor who played Danny was excellent as was Taraji. 

Agreed. I liked his performance so much, I had to look him up on IMDB when I got home from seeing the movie. His name is Jahi Di'Allo Winston. I haven't seen him in anything else, but I thought he was a natural here.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie - despite the issues previously mentioned here. Taraji's performance was excellent - as always, and her chemistry with young Winston was great. I'd like to see her in more of these types of movie. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Just caught this on DVD. I liked it and was surprised it wasn't as awful as the publicity at the time would lead one to believe.

The main thing that bothered me was the brutal violence juxtapositioned with party music. That tongue-in-cheek approach worked with, for example, Deadpool, largely because of the way the Deadpool character was written. Here, not so much IMO. Mary's personality doesn't seem to support it.

Even though this movie was widely panned I hope Taraji and the people who produced it give it another shot with a sequel. It would help I think if they cut back on the cartoonish depictions of violence.

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Did anyone else think Benny “taking in” Mary also included sexual abuse?

I did but for some reason the movie didn't seem to want to commit to that plot point. (Or maybe that part got cut during editing.)