Lou

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"Lou focuses on an admittedly generic kidnapping story, but Allison Janney and Jurnee Smollett's incredibly captivating performances tremendously elevate the formulaic screenplay.

Given the lack of advertising and the low budget, Michael McDonough's cinematography exceeds expectations, providing a much more interesting viewing due to the excellent control of the camera and the surrounding environment. The clean editing helps with the few yet violent fight sequences in a film driven by the two protagonists and their respective arcs.

The third act risks it all by "toying" with the audience's intellect, but it's still a decent watch."

Rating: B-

I don’t watch thrillers as a rule, so I will not try to compare it to others in that genre. I gave this a try only because of Allison Janney, who first impressed me in West Wing and later in Mom. Of course, this is a different breed of character for her altogether.

In a few ways the movie stuck close to the formula of the restrictive thriller genre: the supervillain who is always one step ahead until near the end, the fight scenes where any one blow would knock out a real person, scenes from the past filling in where character development leaves off, and plot twists I could see coming yards away. But the movie had a couple of surprises for me, the body count wasn’t as high as usual, and Janney put in her usual strong performance, so I stayed with it until the end, as did my wife, who enjoys thrillers even less than I do. So I guess that speaks volumes for Lou in the end.

Lou didn’t disappoint but didn’t impress. Not memorable or captivating, but not a horrible movie to have on in the background while doing something else.

Lou is a decent but forgettable action drama with a surprisingly good cast but a script that lets everyone down and characters that are just unbelievable. Lou is the Netflix version of Nobody without the humor or fight choreography. Lou is a former CIA operative in hiding that steps in to help her neighbors when a child is kidnapped. Bad guys get shot. Bad Guys get stabbed. Stuff gets blown up. All that should equal a good movie, and it almost does but doesn’t quite make it. Lou isn’t bad, but it’s nothing new and doesn’t do what has been done before, as well as those who have already done it.