Mother Mary Comes To Me, Armed: "Proud Mary"

Proud Mary
Directed by Babak Najafi

Trotted myself off to the local AMC cineplex to catch Taraji P. Henson as star and producer of Proud Mary this past weekend. Gotta say, I enjoyed myself. Now, I have to say that my enjoyment is predicated on a couple of things: I'm female, I'm relatively middle-aged, and I'm a TPH fan. So this makes me the perfect audience. Still, it's a fine film and I'm perplexed by reports that Screen Gems hasn't put the full weight of their promotion machine behind it, considering that African Americans and people of color generally make up the majority of the viewing audience. I'm also perplexed by many folks publically declaring that they plan to miss it until it shows up on cable or streaming services because it doesn't appeal to them. Certainly it's anyone's prerogative to see a film where and when they like, or even not to see it all, and I understand that some may be put off by a narrative about an African American gang moll, but the negativity, people! Give it a chance!

Here are some of my notes:

1. TPH gives a strong performance. The script allows us to see her as a hardboiled operative, but also as a conflicted woman who regrets some of her choices and wants to change her life. There is a softer side to Mary. But in order to get to that peace in the valley, she has to climb a mountain of ... dead bodies.

2. The flick may remind many of the John Cassavetes' 1980 film Gloria, starring his wife Gena Rowlands (it was remade, unnecessarily and unfortunately, by Sidney Lumet in 1999 with Sharon Stone in the title role). In it, a tough ex-gangster's moll tries to prevent the Mob from offing the sole young survivor of a gangland killing. Movies can't resist telling us that the maternal instinct will turn any woman into a supernatural Lioness. (Remember, it was thwarted motherhood that sent Beatrix Kiddo on her intercontinental killing spree in Kill Bill.)

3. I enjoyed the performance given by Jahi Di'Allo Winston as the boy Mary takes under her wing. He's engaging, handsome, and he can play both toughness and vulnerability, which was perfect for the part. (He also charmed as young Ralph Tresvant in last year's TV hit The New Edition Story.) He and Taraji had some great scenes together.

4. It could be said that the film feels a bit slow and leisurely in places. That there are holes and lapses in logic in the plot (as in telling a child not to do something is a bottom-line guarantee that he will do it, for starters). That Mary's backstory could have been pumped up a bit more to increase the pace and make us appreciate her skills and history in the underworld crew. But I was OK with the slower scenes. I find it wearisome when every single film is throwing action, info, and images off the screen at breakneck speed. Sometimes fast and furious does not equal smart and clever, but we've been conditioned by a spate of whiz-bang thrillers and superhero flicks to be bombarded. It's nice to be able to just savor a narrative. (Perhaps that's a function of my age; I grew up watching films where character, plot, and tension were allowed to build over the course of the film's running time.) Still, some of the scenes in her apartment dragged down the film's momentum.

5. The perception of drag in the movie could well be influenced by Danny Glover's labored line readings. On a recent social media thread about the flick, someone commented that this is his worst performance yet. I don't know; he isn't given much to do here. I'm a Glover fan, and I still harbor fond recollections of him as a Pomeranian-stroking underworld boss in 1991's A Rage In Harlem. But I have to acknowledge that Glover has always had a mucklemouthed delivery, like his tongue is too fat for his mouth, and his striated voice is only getting more and more rusty as he ages. I described his voice in 2014's Beyond The Lights as "incomprehensible fog." Now his vocal performance has become so distressed and hoarse that in his every scene, I wondered if his audio track was out of sync, since his words seemed to arrive at our ears several seconds after he'd wheezed them out.

6. There is plenty of action and gunfire here. Does it seem over the top? Yes. While the plot explains that underworld boss Luka and Mary's boss Benny (Glover) are rivals, the scope of their operations is never made plain. But it is serious enough for many Bostonians to die in their service.

7. I have to give props to the film's music. The score (by Fil Eisler?) is dynamic, atmospheric, taut and sensitive. While I certainly enjoyed the soundtrack of existing tracks -- including Ike & Tina Turner's version of "Proud Mary," Anthony Hamilton's "Coming From Where I'm From," and more -- the choices in some places seemed too obvious and over the top, particularly in the use of "Proud Mary" as the musical theme. The song is rousing, certainly, but didn't seem to match with Mary's motivations.

But overall, Proud Mary is about redemption. And as a theme for any screen entertainment, it still works. And it adds significantly to Taraji's expansive portfolio as a multi-talented force in films. Of this Mary, we can be proud.

(Proud Mary photo courtesy Screen Gems)

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