Jennifer Lopez Is A Trained Assassin Ready To Kill For Her Daughter In The Mother

In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Jennifer Lopez was having a real moment in action movies. And then she seemed to shift her attention to more music and beloved romantic comedies like The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan. No one is complaining, of course. Who doesn’t love seeing J-Lo in a rom-com? But seeing Lopez in the trailer for The Mother just hits different. Not only is she dipping back into her action hero roots, she’s also playing a mom.

Jennifer Lopez plays a military-trained assassin and mom in The Mother.

In The Mother, Lopez plays a military-trained assassin who has to go into hiding to protect her daughter from potential assailants who are seeking revenge against her. The trailer sees her deliver her baby girl only to be told that she’s been taken away for her own protection. “You wasted FBI time trying to cut a deal for herself,” Lopez is told as she is laying in a hospital bed. “And as a result, seven agents were killed.”

After being told that the only way to keep her daughter safe from two criminals (played by Joseph Fiennes and Gael García Bernal) is to go into hiding and never see her daughter, she reluctantly agrees. Staying away from her daughter for years. Until the criminals find her. And she comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she’s never known by any means possible. “I’m a killer. But I’m also a mother,” Lopez says in the trailer. “And I will die protecting her.”

It’s giving Enough meets Taken.

The Mother might remind people of another role from Lopez’s past, the 2002 film Enough where she played an abused wife and mother who decided to start training to fight back against her own tormentor. This new movie also has shades of the 2008 movie Taken, where Liam Neeson played a retired assassin hunting down his daughter’s kidnappers.

Lopez was “the only actress for the role.”

According to The Mother director Niki Caro, there was simply no one else who could play this role other than Lopez. “Jennifer brings her legendary skill and precision to the action elements, but also brings her strength as a dramatic actor and her experience as a mother right to the heart of the movie,” Caro told People. “I knew Jennifer was the only actress for the role.”

Lopez is mom to 15-year-old twins Max and Esme and stepmom to husband Ben Affleck’s three children, so her maternal instincts probably helped her a lot in this role.

The Mother premieres in May 2023.

The Mother will be available to stream on Netflix on May 12.