To Watch or Not to Watch?

I have become jaded over time as I feel that the quality of the average film has dropped over the years.

I must admit, I did not hold out high hopes for this movie. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

The acting was good, the music was good, as were the locations. It was great to see Janney in a different role and she excelled.

There are no great surprises here, but so what? It is a good way to pass a couple of hours of action /thriller entertainment with a couple of surprise plot twists.

I happily recommend it. It is worth the watch just so long as you keep your expectations realistic.

In dark, effective psycho thriller "Lou" Allison Janney (strong again) is a surly ex-CIA spook living on a remote mountain, pulled into helping only near neighbour Jurnee Smollett when her kid Ridley Asha Bateman is snatched by evil ex Logan Marshall-Green (great - channelling Tom Hardy) who's ALSO ex-military Special Ops. As Janney & Smollett track Marshall-Green across the harsh storm-lashed wilderness more layers & twists unfold... but how will it all end? Maggie Cohn & Jack Stanley's screenplay is classically solid, and Anna Foerster directs with a terrifically taut & gritty style. It's simple, old-school style fare, but still crackin' bang-on entertainment.

The film opens with Lou (Allison Janney) burning documents and getting ready for suicide. She balks with her dog Jax at her feet. Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest is bracing for a storm. Lou has a tenet, a single mom named Hannah (Jurnee Smollett) and her daughter Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman). During the storm Philip (Logan Marshall-Green) the ex-husband believed dead, kidnaps his daughter and heads to a remote bay. Hannah runs to use Lou's phone which is dead. Lou offers to track them through the woods to the surprise of Hannah. Lou demonstrates her military skills and confesses to Hannah she was in the CIA and left the world in a worse condition than she found it.

The film takes place about 1985 as Reagan speaks about Iran-Contra. Lou had been in Iran and was married there with a child for cover. The CIA oversaw the revolution in 1953 and installed the Shah, This was called project Ajax, hence the name Jax for the dog. The film then makes other connections, but it is mostly tracking and a fight between Philip and both women separately.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.