[yasr_overall_rating]
A single mother on vacation takes the law into her own hands to take back her abducted child.
In the tradition of quality B movies, as well as Liam Neeson and Luc Besson’s “Taken” series, comes “Never Let Go,” written and directed by Howard J. Ford. In essence: a child is kidnapped from the wrong parent and the bad guys live (for a while) to regret their folly.
The film also presciently capitalizes on the current wave of strong female protagonists – always a welcome development. As long as we’re going to create mythical characters, a little equal time seems more than appropriate.
“Never Let Go” has no pretensions to be other than an entertaining action movie in (for most Americans) an exotic location, with enough surprises to make the trip worthwhile. A nice touch by the director is the casting of forty-something Angela Dixon as an action lead. There have certainly been a fair number of aging male leads – in many cases with the old timers pushing their sixtieth birthday or beyond. So it is indeed refreshing to see Dixon’s character Lisa Brennan take on a plethora of unsavory male villains and crack a few bones in the process.
The local police exhibit typical bureaucratic laziness. “We’ll go down to the station and take all your information.” In the meantime, the crisis of Lisa trying to track down her infant daughter takes place – and will be won or lost – in real time.
Interestingly, the supporting cast playing local Moroccan women are both sympathetic and resilient, though clearly hampered by institutional and societal constraints. They do what they can to aid Lisa given the limitations of culture and context. Once again, developing these female roles against tired stereotypes is a welcome alternative from director Ford.
There are some minor quibbles with the action sequences. In a country where clearly every other woman on the screen is wearing a scarf or other clothing to obscure their face and hair (as would be the case in real life), Lisa spends most of the movie out of doors unabashedly displaying her blonde hair and blue eyes. To say that she stands out in this North African setting is an understatement.
In the lead-up to the final fight sequence, once Lisa has finally adopted the local women’s attire, albeit briefly, she then discards it all as if transforming from Clark Kent into Superman. The analogy may have been intentional on the part of director Ford. In a movie theatre, the scene probably garnered a well-earned chuckle from the audience. All in all, an enjoyable, action-packed ride through politics, corruption, and Morocco for the price of a DVD rental. Too bad all B movies can’t be this good.
Now available on DVD & Digital HD from Sony Pictures
