Featuring the wonderfully vivacious Taraji P. Henson in a throwback to genre films of the 1970’s, Proud Mary has a lot of potential conceptually. Due to its cheap execution and tired script however, Proud Mary is a plodding January actioner that’s more fitting for the bargin bin than a theatrical release.
Proud Mary follows Mary, a hit woman who works for organized crime in Boston. Once she meets a young boy during a hit, she begins to question her career path and her loyalties to crime.
Opening with a flashy and fun 70’s inspired intro, its sad to see just how quickly Proud Mary losses that positive energy. For a movie that calls itself a blaxploitation film, it shows little of that influence outside of that intro and an original song created for the movie. There is not a lot of personality to Babak Najafi’s direction, as the film has a consistently muted look and lacks a sense of style.
When the movie should be at its most exciting is its action setpieces, but Najafi’s direction makes these moments borderline incoherent. Between the shaky camera and non-stop editing, these setpieces are too franticly filmed to capture the excitement of gunplay. It also doesn’t help that this film was cheaply made (14 million dollar budget), as there are no spectacular stunts to hide how shaky the craftsmanship is.
In terms of narrative, Proud Mary is about as generic as it gets. We’ve seen the “hitman with a change of heart” storyline done so many times that it feels stale, as there is little this script does to make it feel fresh (collaborated on by three writers). The movie hits the predictable story beats audiences expect, with the dialogue making every dramatic conversation feel inauthentic and silly. Najafi’s direction doesn’t let any of the dramatic beats breath onscreen, drowning out the nuance with a tone-deaf score.
All this leaves star Taraji P. Henson with almost nothing to work with. She always has great presence in her roles, but between the flat script and even flatter direction, she is forced to give a monotone and forgettable performance. None of the vivaciousness Henson has shown in past roles is present, making for a character that has little of interest outside her initial intrigue. She clearly has what it takes to command her own movie, but this is not the vehicle for her to do that. The supporting cast also fails to make an impact, as its particularly sad to see Donald Glover strapped with such a thankless role.
Instead of being a fun throwback, Proud Mary is the type of bland misfire we’re use to seeing in January. Only it hurts seeing when a movie has so much promise on paper.