Proud Mary

Given its early January release and quiet marketing (the movie wasn't even screened in advance for critics), I expected much worse from Proud Mary.  The movie is being advertised as a throwback to 70s blaxploitation action flicks, but director Babak Najafi seems less interested in having the bullets fly, and more interested in the melodrama that slowly builds between the characters.  Maybe this will disappoint those who are looking for some quick action, but I found some of it kind of captivating at times, and there is a strong lead performance from Taraji P. Henson. 

Henson's Mary is a hit woman for a Boston mob family run by the aging crime boss Benny (Danny Glover).  We witness her pull off one of her hits in the film's opening scene, where she murders a man she was sent to kill.  But then, something happens that she didn't expect.  She finds the man's young son in the next room, headphones on and engrossed in a video game, completely oblivious to what has just happened right outside his bedroom door.  This moment sticks with Mary, and we find her one year later stealthily keeping an eye on the kid, Danny (an effective Jahi Di’Allo Winston), who after losing his father fell on hard times, and is now doing errands for a rival crime family.  When the boy passes out from hunger right there on the street after the boss he works for refuses to feed him and beats him for stealing money from him, Mary takes the kid under her wing, and brings him to her apartment.

Proud Mary definitely echoes 1994's The Professional, with its story of a violent killer who comes to protect and eventually care for an orphaned child.  In Mary's case, she makes the bad decision to get involved and kill the boss Danny used to work for after she finds out how he mistreated him.  This could potentially spark a mob war between the two crime families, who are already at a shaky agreement over territory that seems to be on the verge of crumbling.  Mary seems conflicted by her actions.  She knows that if she speaks up, she puts both her own life and Danny's in danger.  She also doesn't know how to tell the kid that she was the one responsible for his father's death.  She does her best to shield the kid from the truth, but it's inevitable that it will eventually come out, and Mary will find herself being targeted by and fighting against the "family" that raised her to be what she is.

One thing that does set the movie apart from dozens of crime thrillers just like it is that the movie does not depict Mary as a hardened killer.  Yes, she obviously is good at her job, but she also seems to feel every kill she makes in the film, and it affects her on some level.  Henson is giving an emotional and effective performance here, as she tries to deal with the consequences her actions will bring, while at the same time doing her best to stay confident and strong in front of the people around her.  Mary is tough, but she is human.  She takes Danny under her wing at first out of guilt from what happened one year ago, but she then begins to genuinely care about the kid, and wants to get out of the crime family for his safety, as well as her own.  This drama, along with the individual relationships she shares with her boss Benny and his son Tom (Billy Brown), whom she used to be in love with, is what makes up a majority of the running time.  This is a much more quiet and dialogue-driven crime thriller than you might expect.

It's not until well past the hour mark of this roughly 90 minute movie that we get our first major action sequence, and while it is appropriately intense in all the right ways, the movie could have used a bit more of it, especially given the genre and films that the director was using as inspiration.  Don't get me wrong, it's kind of a nice surprise that Proud Mary is more interested in character interaction and not just violent shootouts, but it does seem to keep us waiting for the inevitable action a bit too long for its own good.  I can see certain audience members getting restless.  It never quite ratchets up the tension to the level that we expect walking in.

I am recommending Proud Mary on the strength of the performances, and some of the on-screen relationships, which come across as being fairly strong.  As long as you don't expect this movie to be an action thrill ride, there's plenty to admire here.  It's certainly nothing original or earth shattering, but for what it is, it's easy enough to enjoy.

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