Last week's Mank, a much-discussed likely Oscar contender from director David Fincher, made only a brief appearance in the Top 10 movie list before being unceremoniously bumped by Little Nicky, an Adam Sandler movie from 2000 where the comedian plays the son of Satan. As of this writing, the top spot on the list belongs to Ava, a Jessica Chastain vehicle that briefly played in theaters back in August before arriving on Netflix on December 7. Unless Mank carried a pistol in his Netflix thumbnail, Fincher's movie didn't stand a chance.
While Ava might look like a high-octane gun-fu throat-punch in the mold of John Wick or Atomic Blonde, the movie is both stranger and more frustrating than its marketing material suggests. It opens predictably enough, with Chastain putting on a chipper Southern accent and picking up a man at an airport before shooting him in the backseat of her car.
But as her character Ava moves through the world, trading banter with her handler Duke (John Malkovich) and visiting with her mother Bobbi (Geena Davis), the movie shifts into an odd tonal register between family melodrama and espionage potboiler. Ava herself is confused, questioning the ethics of her line of work, and so is the movie around her.
Ava was directed by Tate Taylor, who was brought in to replace the film's original director, screenwriter Matthew Newton, after his history of alleged assault surfaced, and the movie shares some of the herky jerky rhythms as Taylor's last film, 2019's Octavia Spencer movie Ma.
Taylor has less success with Ava, which will probably not inspire many jokes online. Instead of a Bourne-like globe-trotting conspiracy plot, Newton's script places its ass-kicking protagonist at an awkward dinner with her estranged sister (Jess Weixler) and her sister's husband (Common), who also has a gambling problem and used to date Ava.
There's too much going on, almost like the movie thinks an abundance of psychobabble can paper over a lack of character development, and most of it is uninteresting. (It doesn't help that so much of the movie takes place in generic-looking hotel rooms and lobbies.)
Like many of the other junky action movies available on Netflix, Ava does at least boast one fun performance. Chastain, who is playing a variation on the hardened CIA agent she played in Zero Dark Thirty, doesn't really get a chance to enjoy herself here. She's too busy making amends, choking out henchmen, and attempting to control her drinking problem.
Luckily, Colin Farrell plays the villain Simon, and he expertly smirks his way through his role. He's an actor who would do well in his own Netflix action movie—or he should just release a forgettable thriller and wait for it to end up on the service. -Thrillist
