Ava (2020) – A Movie A Day 2021 #9
Ava (2020) – A Movie A Day 2021 #9
With its exceptionally strong cast featuring Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common, Colin Farrell, Joan Chen, and Geena Davis, I was excited to get home and watch Ava after coming across it in one my local Redboxes. The writeup promised exciting action with Jessica Chastain as Ava, an assassin who ends up on the run after a job goes awry, and I do enjoy a good assassin-on-the-run action flick. And while there absolutely are a number of fun action scenes from gun fights to hand-to-hand combat, the main focus of the movie was split between action and some heavy drama as Ava’s troubled past comes meets her dangerous present. Now, I love a good drama as well, but overall I did come away from Ava feeling like maybe the divided attention paid to both the drama and the action didn’t quite come together in a way that enhanced both. So overall, I enjoyed Ava, but I was hoping to enjoy it a lot more.
The movie starts with Ava on a mission. It’s a quick setup just to get you familiar with Ava’s work and a bit of her personality. Ava is an efficient killer, but people in her organization have problems with how she handles certain situation. Ava has had issues with getting too emotionally involved with the people she’s sent to kill (not romantically, more in a “what did you do to make me kill you” kind of way), and Simon, one of her superiors played by Colin Farrell, doesn’t trust her anymore. Ava’s direct contact, Duke (played by John Malkovich) is a disciplined and fatherly figure, and he seems to trust Ava to do what needs to be done. But when we see one of Ava’s missions go wrong and nearly get her killed, it seems clear that someone is gunning to put Ava away for good. This is the action part of the movie, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Meanwhile though, Ava takes a break from killing to go to her hometown of Boston, and that’s where the drama comes in. We learn about Ava’s dark past with her parents, sister, and ex-fiancé, and on its own I think it could be a good drama. Geena Davis plays Ava’s mom, and Common plays her ex-fiancé, so clearly the acting is great. I guess the thing that never really clicked for me is that Ava’s family life and her life as an assassin never really cross over. Obviously Ava’s troubles influence her character and affect her ability to survive as people are trying to kill her, but the drama side of the movie and the action side of the movie felt distinctly separate in a lot of ways. There’s never really a climactic scene where Ava is forced to reveal her new life to her family (well, there sort of is, but it’s very minor), and even though family ties end up being important to Duke and Simon and their work within the assassination organization, Ava is never really forced into the same position. I suppose that’s why I say the drama didn’t enhance the action and vice versa. It feels like a lot of dramatic buildup with no real payoff.
That being said, I did enjoy the movie. The actors are all great, and even though I would have preferred that the story took different turns, the people in the movie kept me invested in what happened to their characters. Also, there were multiple action scenes that I really quite enjoyed. Jessica Chastain is a good action hero, and I look forward to seeing her shoot and beat up a lot more people in the future (like in The 355 which I keep seeing trailers for in the theater).