SWEET GIRL : Monday 23rd August 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing over the last few weeks some the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own home this week is the American action thriller 'SWEET GIRL' Directed by Brian Andrew Mendoza in his feature film making debut following his only other foray into film making with the 2009 short film 'The Via Monterey'. He has however, in the intervening years been kept busy with a number of Producer credits on such films as 'Road to Paloma' Directed, Co-Written and starring Jason Momoa, 'Braven' with Jason Momoa, on three episodes as Executive Producer of 'Frontier' with Jason Momoa, and the upcoming 'The Last Manhunt' Written by Jason Momoa. It will come as no surprise therefore, that this films headlining star is none other than Jason Momoa, who also takes a Producer credit here. The film was released on Netflix on 20th August and has generated mixed or average Reviews. 

The film opens up with Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) and his wife Amanda (Adria Arjona) and their young daughter Rachel (Milena Rivero) enjoying peaceful and loving family time on a forest camping trip. Sometime later in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Amanda falls ill with life threatening cancer. Doctor Wu (Reggie Lee) comes to Ray with the great news that a soon to be available new drug will halt the cancer's progress in its tracks, which lifts his spirits considerably. Soon afterwards when there is no further news on this groundbreaking drug, Ray learns from Dr. Wu that the potentially life saving drug has been pulled off the market, due to the BioPrime CEO Simon Keeley's (Justin Bartha) new business move. Watching Keeley on a live debate on the TV with Congresswoman Diana Morgan (Amy Brenneman), Ray calls in to question Keeley live on air. He threatens Keeley, saying if he doesn't reverse his decision, that he'll personally kill him with his own bare hands. Keeley needless to say doesn't take the threat seriously and sometime shortly thereafter Amanda passes away, devastating both Ray and Rachel.

Fast forward six months and Ray one day out of the blue gets a phone call from a reporter Martin Bennett (Nelson Franklin) who tells him he can help him get justice for Amanda. After a goose chase, they meet on a subway train, having been unknowingly followed by Rachel (now played by Isabella Merced). Bennett tells Ray that BioPrime has been bribing anyone who questions their dirty deeds, including the company that made the drug Amanda needed to save her life. Before he has finished and Ray is trying to take all of this in, a hitman named Santos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) attacks and kills Bennett. Ray fights back and as the train stops at a station, Santos stabs Ray and knocks out Rachel, leaving them both lying on the platform as he makes his getaway on the train.

Fast fast forward two years and father and daughter are living in some dead beat apartment. Ray has been keeping tabs on, and investigating Keeley in the meantime. He sneaks into a lavish charity fund raising event honouring Keeley, posing as a waiter. He eventually gets Keeley on his own with two of his bodyguards - one of which he thwarts with a CO2 fire extinguisher to the face and the other gets accidentally shot in the head when Ray and Keeley tussle with a gun. Holding a knife to Keeley throat, he questions him about the hit on Bennett and the bribes. As Keeley tells him it was the Chairman Vinod Shah (Raza Jaffrey) who signed off on all hits, Keeley is able to break free and in the ensuing fight, Ray wraps a sheet of plastic wrapping around his face and holds it tight from behind suffocating the CEO. 

Ray and Rachel need to abandon their apartment and quickly for fear of reprisals. They book into a motel somewhere outside town. Rachel, now growing increasingly concerned about her father's pursuit for revenge calls FBI Agent Sarah Meeker (Lex Scott Davis) and advises her to look into BioPrime. Early the next day two gun totting heavies break into the motel and Ray dispenses with them both, only adding to the tensions between the pair. They go on the run, and Meeker puts out an APB on Ray's car. They pull off the road up a dirt track in the snow and out of sight. The next day Ray plans to go after Shah alone, leaving Rachel behind but she convinces him to take her with him.

They ambush Shah's car and its convoy of two others carrying a contingent of bodyguards. Ray disables two vehicles using nails to puncture the tyres of one and a bulldozer to upturn the other leaving Shah's car stranded on a tree trunk that Ray had cut down earlier in the day blocking the exit from a tunnel. Santos has meanwhile arrived on the scene all guns blazing. He takes out Shah's one remaining bodyguard and as Ray tries to interrogate him in the tunnel, Shah is shot and killed by Santos who's also been following him. Ray and Rachel make a hasty retreat with Santos shooting out one of the tyres. Rachel recognises Santos as the man who attacked them on the subway train. They abandon their vehicle and steal a breakdown tow truck. Driving past a diner, they spot Santos' Volkswagen Kombi Van, and the three meet up there on neutral territory, with four Police Officers sat in a booth at the other end of the diner. Ray gets Santos to tell him his employer is Diana Morgan. Upon leaving, Santos calls after Rachel saying that they'll meet up again in Pittsburgh. 

Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, they're spotted by the FBI helicopters and a convoy of Police vehicles in hot pursuit. Ray gets out of the truck and heads into a baseball stadium where the game has just ended and the crowds are exiting. A foot chase ensues through the crowds and the FBI catch up with Ray on the roof of the stadium. As Meeker attempts to talk him down, it is revealed that Ray is in fact Rachel. It seems that Ray died from the stab wound at the subway station two years previously and since then Rachel, suffering from PTSD, has been on her own journey for her own brand of justice. She jumps off the rooftop into the river below. She is found and arrested by Meeker, and strapped down with her neck in a brace in the back of an ambulance. She successfully manages to thwart her captors, gain control of the steering wheel so crashing the ambulance and flees the scene.

Determined to finally get some form of justice for her Mum and Dad, Rachel breaks into Morgan's office. However, she is greeted by Santos and a knife fight breaks out. Rachel crashes through a window and clings to a set of scaffolds and clambers down several levels. Santos reaches her and the pair fight once again ending up in a fountain. Santos gains the upper hand by strangling Rachel under the water where she looses consciousness. The voice of her father telling her to wake up sees Rachel spring into action against an unsuspecting Santos, and this time it is she who has the upper hand repeatedly stabbing him in the chest finally killing him until the water runs red. She returns to Morgan's office and confronts the Congresswoman and secretly records her admitting she was bribed by BioPrime and ordered the hit that killed Bennett and in turn her father. Rachel boards a plane to an unknown destination and an uncertain future as the voice recording is received on Meeker's email. 

Ultimately there's nothing sweet about this sweet girl - more of a sour puss really who's hell bent on revenge at any cost for those no good conniving big pharma types who seem to have hitmen and politicians planted firmly in their very deep pockets. That said there does seem to be a screen presence between Momoa and Merced that carries the film forward, and Momoa shows that he's capable of portraying real raw emotion as well as the physical aspects of his prior big and small screen outings. The plot twist at two-thirds in adds a new dimension to the film that almost takes it into the realms of fantasy, but to get there Ray/Rachel has to climb up onto the roof of a baseball stadium, just so that he/she can jump of it (reminding me of the closing scene in 'The Bourne Ultimatum') - plllleeeease! The fight sequences are realistic and well choreographed but after the first couple of rounds it's more of the same, repetitive shoot 'em, knife 'em, kick & punch 'em fare with an eighteen year old girl winning the day against a far deadlier and more heavily armed foe, that thanks to that plot twist makes you lose all credibility in what went before. 

'Sweet Girl' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-