MOVIE REVIEW by Lucas Allen: ‘Ava’ has too little action, too much melodrama

Ava
(Vertical Entertainment/Voltage Pictures)

By Lucas Allen

Riding on the success of the John Wick movies, “Ava” attempts to create a new character who certainly has the skills, but is heavily flawed as a character. With a film that’s part John Wick and part melodrama, this is more of an odd duck of an action movie. Then again, the film’s director, Tate Taylor, seems to be more comfortable with the dramatics, having previously directed the Oscar-winning drama “The Help.”
Working for an organization called The Management, Ava (Jessica Chastain) is a skillful assassin, though she’s been dealing with personal issues that have affected her work. She struggles with alcoholism and her mother, Bobbi (Geena Davis), recently had a heart attack. Not to mention, her ex-boyfriend Michael (Common) is planning to marry her sister Judy (Jess Weixler), who holds a bitter resentment towards her sister for being away for almost a decade. This unusual behavior is also concerning for her mentor, Duke (John Malkovich), especially after a mission in Saudi Arabia suddenly went wrong.
This latest mishap has the organization’s top agent, Simon (Colin Farrell), putting out a kill order. However, Ava is trained to be alert to her surroundings and uses it to her advantage to stay a few steps ahead of her attackers. But with her family possibly in danger, she’ll use her skills to ultimately set things right.
If you’ve seen the trailer and expect a lot of action, you’re going to be pretty disappointed. The movie has some fight scenes sprinkled throughout and that’s about it. They’re fine enough sequences for what they are, but it makes you wish for a little more variety in the action scenes like all the other recent films in the genre. But in all honesty, it’ll have you begging for the new Bond film “No Time to Die” to be in theaters already.
The script by Matthew Newton might’ve started off as a John Wick clone, but for some reason added scenes straight from a TV drama. Having the family drama subplot feels more like a distraction from the main plot when you want to watch people getting shot a lot. The story of a trained killer who’s both an addict and has a growing conscience can be a more interesting story when written right. But the problem with this story is that audiences don’t care or want to know what the main character’s personal life is like for almost half the film. At least John Wick was wise enough to keep his background to a minimum to make room for more intense sequences.
The actors are all giving decent performances, basically on the same level of one of those Lifetime movies. Chastain certainly has the emotional complexity for her character, but her presence as an action star is questionable when she uses an obvious stunt double with a wig in some of the fight scenes. Malkovich looks a little bored in many of his scenes, while Farrell is really hamming it up with his thick Irish accent. Then there’s Common, who has nothing to work with despite being a capable actor having done great work on the TV series Hell on Wheels. Surprisingly, Davis ends up being the film’s comic relief and becomes the best part of the whole thing.
It’s difficult to categorize “Ava” as an action film when it also dwells into TV-style melodrama. You could possibly check it out for curiosity’s sake, or wait a bit longer for the next big movie to hit the big screen. Either way, you’re better off staying home and having a John Wick night.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: R (for violence and language throughout, and brief sexual material)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2.5 Stars (Out of Four)