‘Lou’: Netflix turns Allison Janney into a tough action anti-heroine

One of Netflix’s recent hits is ‘Lou’, a thriller with which Anna Foerster returns to directing feature films After spending a long season directing series, he has been behind titles like “Criminal Minds”, “Outlander”, “Carnival Row” or “Westworld”; the director of “Underworld: Blood Wars” returns with a melodramatic thriller in which you can see Allison Janney has turned into a bloodthirsty former CIA spy, turned into an avenging grandmother.

Foerster shows his experience in action cinema with a film that begins by releasing adrenaline with its first scenes, putting the audience in a situationwith a grim protagonist haunted by her own ghosts, an anti-heroine who is forced back into action after the daughter of the tenant of the house she rents has been kidnapped.

In this aspect, points out that the main characters are completely female. In the case of Jurnee Smollett’s role as a mother on the run from an abusive husband, it is more archetypal; Allison Janney is the one who has an unexpected surgery. It’s nice to see an action heroine out of the ordinary, a retired former CIA agent and that hasn’t stopped her from being fit. As audiences have grown accustomed to seeing older male actors taking shots, Liam Neeson is one of the most obvious examples, It’s also nice to see them over 60.

Effective action film with nuances of familiar melodrama

That novelty, together with the good work of Janney and Smollett, creates a conventional but effective business proposition. The story is enjoyed, thanks to the fact that the action scenes are well-balanced and that different situations are justified by being set in the 1980s, which allows the film to take certain licenses on the track or disappearance of a character, given the technology of the decade developed but much less than today.

The way Foerste interprets the screenplay by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley is reminiscent of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western style. Also, it would appear that ‘Lou’ may be a kind of continuation of the incendiary atmosphere of ‘Those Who Want Me Dead’. Now, a less archetypal storyline would have been appreciated, especially in a series of twists that bring him dangerously close to family melodrama and that cause ‘Lou’ to have a certain gourmet TV movie feel; since its visual quality is flawless – worthy of a step on the big screen -, but its plot may recall, at certain moments, the tabletop TV movies of Antena 3.

The result is an effective and fun proposal, thanks to a splendid Allison Janney, who is very well accompanied by Jurnee Smollett as the avenging mother and Logan Marshall-Green defending the role of the villain. In addition to amazing action, “Lou” is the ideal entertainment for a cold afternoon at home.

Note: 6

The best: See Allison Janney turned into an anti-heroin action. More papers like this one for her, please her.

Worse: The twists and turns of the family melodrama have too much tabletop drama.