So I watched Ava (2020) this week Starring Jessica Chastain and Collin Ferrel and I just have some thoughts on it...
First and foremost I enjoyed the hell out of this movie! It takes the common ‘special agent/assassin gone rogue’ trope and spins it on its head.
Jessica Chastain plays a role that we usually only see males play. The storyline is a story typically reserved for male action movies/revenge flicks, and she aces tf out of it.
Ppl have been saying that this movie is nothing new, it’s just a ‘girl-power’ grab and exactly the same as every other action movie and predictable (but what action movie isn’t?) and while the tropes are all the same, I think that its completely different in terms of theme.
This movie didn’t just swap out a male lead with a female lead and went on its merry way. Instead it chose to focus on women and the relationships that they have.
Such as the relationship between a mother (played by Geena Davis!), her daughters, and the relationship between two sisters.
This film is so deeply rooted in family and unresolved trauma from emotionally abusive fathers/mothers and I’ve never seen an action movie so focused on family dynamics like this before!
I almost feel like the movie is about Ava, who just so happens to be an assassin on the side.
Ava is not a hero. Ava is a little girl deep inside who is still trying to find some closure, some resolve, from her family and her past addictions with alcohol/drugs as well as growing tired of killing ppl when she doesn’t know what they’ve done wrong. (When she finally gets closure from her mother at the end, it’s bittersweet, almost like a consolation prize for the shit she’ll have to go through later on.)
The main antagonist, played by Collin Ferrel, is a father and almost all of his scenes involve him being surrounded by his children. A baby boy, a daughter (about 4 or 5 I think) and his oldest daughter (teenage I think?)whom he has trained to be an assassin/agent like him. But he is commanding of his oldest daughter, acting more as a superior officer than as a caring dad.
During the movie, he even makes a comment on how he’d never let his youngest daughter become an agent because she is a lady and that begs the question ‘well then what the hell does that make your oldest daughter?’
Which hints at a sort of resentment, maybe? between the two sisters or at least between the oldest and how her father views her.
The family dynamics are so interesting in this film. It is character driven and the characters just so happen to be govt. agents/secret assassins.
And best of all, the female characters are people, first and foremost. Incredibly written w/out any of that ‘polished’ shit that usually comes with ‘female’ lead action movies.
It’s definitely worth checking out and one of my fav ‘quarantine’ releases.
Also, Common is in it, and he plays a role that I feel is typically the ‘female’ role in these types of movies. He’s Ava’s old flame, and acts as a damsel at one point.
It was amazing and perfect and awesome. But no joke it was a great film and Emma Thompson was incredible, Tom hanks was Walt Disney full stop. And Collin ferrel as the father was perfect and his little girl withy the Australian accent was adorable! 9/10
