(2022) Lou - A Very Grim Action Thriller Movie

Like any other normal Friday, there was a new movie released on Netflix that I would usually watch. This time it was an action thriller that seemed grim but I still gave it a try. OK, will go into it now.

Brief story Line

Set in the 1980s, a woman named Lou (Allison Janney - The Addams Family 2019 version, The Girl on the Train etc) was living by herself in a small island only accompanied by her dog Jax. Her nearest neighbor was a single mother named Hannah (Jurnee Smollet - Birds of Prey, Lovecraft Country TV series etc) with her very young daughter Vee (Ridley Bateman).

Lou's peaceful life was abruptly disturbed when a mysterious person (Logan Marshall-Green - The Invitation, Upgrade etc) kidnapped Vee during heavy storm and she decided to help Hannah to find her.

So how would the story conclude? You can find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I said above that the movie looked grim and when I started watching it, the grim feeling was very strong even till the end. The movie started off by showing the lead character Lou who liked to hunt with her dog and was a loner who did not like to interact with other people. At first I was a bit confused why the news on TV was broadcasting something happened in the 1980s but then I realized that was the period where the movie was set. The thing that made this film cheerful a bit for me was the songs that I was familiar with.

Anyway, the movie was not really interesting until the appearance of the mysterious person who was not afraid to do vicious things to get what he wanted. Unfortunately though the action was too scarce and there was only one scene that truly excite me in the middle. The finale too was not as satisfying for me, although it probably was a good enough conclusion. The story pretty much focused on the interaction between Lou and Hannah and the mystery surrounding the kidnapper where there was a bit of shocking revelation at a later stage. Having a duration of 109 minutes to me was a bit too long. For such story, I thought around 90 minutes is already sufficient to cover what was going to be told.

I was not familiar with the director Anna Foerster as the only feature film that she directed and I had seen was Underworld: Blood War while the rest were episodes of TV series. But to me her work was decent enough in here and I read that the critical rating was not bad either. Allison Janney was surprising agile doing a bit of action, while Jurnee Smollett and Logan Marshall-Green were quite OK. Aside from them there were also the support cast of Matt Craven (Resurrection TV series etc) as Sheriff Rankin and Greyston Holt (Bitten TV series etc). 

Overall it was a so so action thriller movie with a simple enough story. Personally to me, I would have been more satisfied if the film had a shorter duration as I felt it was a bit too draggy. So if you are looking for a movie like this, you can give this a try as it was just released on Netflix.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars