Ava
Everything one needs to know about this film boils down to the fact that, for no known reason, Jessica Chastain’s titular character Ava was originally called Eve and her name was only changed after the movie had been shot, resulting in a lot of dodgy dubbing. The whole thing is painstakingly pointless.
With this flick, director Tate Taylor proves he has run whatever talent he did have into the ground back in 2011, after he helmed Oscar nominated picture The Help. Ava is supposed to be a high-octane thriller that follows one of the greatest assassins in the world in a fight for survival after a job gone wrong puts her in the crosshairs of her own agency. Instead, Taylor offers a romantic drama in which Chastain’s deadly killer is caught up in a love triangle with her sister (a dire Jess Weixler) and her ex (Common, in a surprising play against type). Ava doesn’t even know she’s in danger until the last fifteen minutes of the film, because her whole storyline is consumed by this soap opera storyline up until the point the movie remembers it’s supposed to be an action thriller.
Everything wrong with this film can be pinpointed within the opening sequence. Chastain picks up a target from an airport and proceeds to quiz him in order to find out what he had done wrong for someone to want him dead. She kills him anyway, without getting an answer. In what should be a scene to hook in the viewer, it instead delivers a hail of poor dialogue, a tonne of cliches and a horrendous attempt at trying to make the protagonist (remember, they’re a paid assassin) likeable. Or, even worse, relatable.
Maybe some entertainment could have been gouged out of this ninety-minute feature if the usually stellar Jessica Chastain (who also produced this movie) had offered up a great performance. Unfortunately, she doesn’t. In fact, the majority of the cast are pretty bland too, although Matthew Newton’s script is, hopefully, largely to blame. The only actor who passes through this unscathed is Colin Farrell who, in a turn as the villainous Simon, seems to take the whole thing rather tongue-in-cheek, whilst also getting to be delightfully Irish.
Disgustingly lacklustre and off genre, this action thriller has dull action and zero thrills. Jessica Chastain has to work hard to get away from this and hopefully, this remains the low point of her career.