Why ‘The Mother’ Is Jennifer Lopez’s Most Exciting Work Since ‘Enough’

Aside from Selena, Jennifer Lopez’s Enough tends to be one of the films that people name as her best.

While she has received praise for her performance in movies like Hustlers and is rom-com royalty thanks to films like Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner, it’s Lopez’s role as a mom fighting to protect her child in the 2002 film that has stuck with fans.

Lopez is returning to that style of action with Netflix’s The Mother after years away from the genre. While Enough was more of a thriller/drama, her character, Slim, had some intense fight scenes against her abusive ex-husband that serve as a permanent reminder that Lopez could have taken over the action genre if she had chosen to. In The Mother, Lopez plays an assassin who comes out of hiding to destroy the men she has been running away from to protect her teenage daughter, Zoe (Lucy Paez).

Omari Hardwick), and they devote themselves to keeping Zoe alive when the ghosts from her mother’s past come knocking. The mother (the character’s name is not revealed throughout the film) uses her skills, tenacity, and heart to annihilate anyone threatening her daughter’s well-being. 

Lopez has always had the physique and strength of an action star, the presence of a movie star, and the charm of a rom-com queen. Still, she has steered away from these types of physical roles for most of her career to focus on more comedic, “chick flick” types, but this one is proof that she had it in her all along. In The Mother, Lopez easily jumps on top of cars, handles all the weapons with the confidence of a seasoned soldier, and fights bad guys with the expertise of someone who has starred in all of the John Wick films.