Sweet Girl review – An action movie with mood swings

“Local family ravaged by Big Pharma greed” makes for a catchy headline, but the sad reality is that in our late-stage capitalist society, it’s a situation that’s all too real for too many people. That’s the topic Netflix tackles in new movie Sweet Girl, an action-packed, beat ’em up that goes in some surprising directions.

Devoted family man Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) has an idyllic life with his wife Amanda (Adria Arjona) and daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced); that is until Amanda’s cancer comes out of remission. After the affordable generic version of a life-saving drug is pulled from the market, guaranteeing Amanda’s death, Ray swears revenge on those responsible.

Ray’s thirst for justice leads to a journalist who has been digging into the story of corporate greed and corruption. The reporter’s discovery of shady dealings, which puts both Ray and his daughter in harm’s way, turns Ray’s quest for vengeance into a mission to protect the only family he has left.

As a leading man, Jason Momoa’s role as the grieving husband and father has some surprisingly moving moments, when he’s fully allowed to let go and sink into the emotions of the character. Unfortunately, for the majority of the film, he’s just a hulking action hero silently brooding, and gruffly berating his tag-along teenage daughter in between kicking a lot of ass.

As Rachel, Isabela Merced doesn’t really get a chance to show much in the way of variety. For the most part, the script only calls for “angry, sarcastic, petulant teenager”, which Merced pulls off just fine. The rest of the characters in Sweet Girl don’t really matter. You can label them simply as “Billionaire CEO”, “FBI agent”, “Methodical Assassin” and “Posturing Politician.” Along with the nameless hulking hitmen and bodyguards that get kicked around, they’re just there to drive the plot.

Your typical revenge-based action film plays out in three distinct parts: setup, action and payoff. Sweet Girls follows this formula, but it does it in a weird way. The setup is honestly heartbreaking – the mood is grim and filled with fruitless desperation, and it carries far more emotional power than you would expect from this type of movie. It’s relatable and raw.

The middle of the film is all the action you could want, due to Ray and Rachel being on the run, pursued by goons while still trying to get justice for their family. The fight choreography is brutal, but also somewhat unrealistic in that the action sequences go on for far too long. You can enjoy Jason Momoa kicking seven shades of crap out of some bad guys, but when they’ve been throwing down for ages and no one is at all winded, it stretches credibility.

At least Sweet Girl takes the time to lay groundwork that explains how an everyman character like Ray Cooper can go toe-to-toe with elite mercenaries sent to keep him quiet – by showing him training in an MMA gym pre-tragedy.

When it comes to the payoff, that’s where Sweet Girl gets dicey. There’s a thing that happens that I definitely cannot talk about, but when that watershed moment arrives, it steals momentum from the rest of the film. A lot like one of Ray’s gut punches, in fact. The third act is formulaic in terms of realising the revenge fantasy that’s carried the film, but it’s far weaker than it could have been, and the satisfaction that Sweet Girl has been building up to is significantly curtailed.

If I’m honest, this has been an incredibly difficult movie to review, or even process after watching, due to the way it see-saws. It’s somber, but it’s also sometimes super cheesy. It has many of expected genre tropes, but occasionally manages to defy them. There’s a surprising amount of subtlety, but also a lot of smack-your-forehead stupidity.

Sweet Girl is definitely a mixed bag, and one where the whole is probably not equal to the sum of its parts. Your mileage may vary depending on your entertainment tastes.

Sweet Girl releases today, 20 August 2021, streaming only on Netflix.