An assassin becomes marked for death by her
own black ops organization after questioning orders and breaking protocol.
Director: Tate Taylor
Cast: Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich,
Common, Geena Davis, Colin Farrell, Ioan Gruffudd, Joan Chen
Release Date:
Action, Crime, Drama
Rated R for violence and language
throughout, and brief sexual material
Runtime: 1h 36m
Review:
Ava has all the hallmarks of Luc Besson’s
late career films, a betrayed assassin fighting for survival with extreme
prejudice and a bass heavy techno beat playing the background. Throw in a nonsensical plot and this is the
type of movie you probably end up watching during a sleepless night on Showtime
simply due to a lack of options. The
oddity here is that this isn’t a Besson film, Tate Taylor directs this overly
busy femme fatale cliché minefield, led by some model turned actress instead it
stars Jessica Chastain. Chastain also
produced the film which leads me to believe it might be a bit of a vanity
project where she could try her hand as an action hero. As usual, Chastain is the most interesting
person on screen and she handles herself well in the action portions of the
film, making for a believable killer.
The supporting cast is also filled with name stars all making what’s
onscreen far more interesting than it should be. The main problem is the film’s script is so
hackneyed that once you get past Chastain killing 30 armed guards with her bare
hands in a spaghetti strapped cocktail dress you start to notice the film and
characters are all kind of ridiculous.
Chastain’s character for example doesn’t just have one thing haunting
her instead she’s got a bevy of them, she’s an alcoholic, a terrible sister
with daddy issues. The fact that
Chastain makes this all passable is a testament of her strength as an actress
but by the point you have John Malkovick karate fighting Colin Farrell it’s a
bit tough to overlook the issues with the script. I can’t say Ava isn’t fun in a trashy sort of
way because it is in its own way especially watching all the grade A talent
slumming it because of a overcooked script.
C+
