“Sweet Girl” tries to address issues in the medical and pharmaceutical fields with a somewhat interesting premise surrounding conspiracies; but it has poor action sequences, third-rate writing, and an undeveloped narrative that builds up to a baffling plot twist.
Netflix delivers a boatload of original content monthly so that there is something for everyone, coming-of-age stories, melodramas, action thrillers, etc. However, there comes a time where most of their original films feel like ones that you have seen before on the platform. They begin with interesting narratives that hook you onto the ride, but as the film goes by, it starts to feel mundane. Unfortunately, this is the case with Brian Andrew Mendoza’s “Sweet Girl”, yet another Netflix action flick that tries to be a lot of things all the time.
A family man, Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa), vows for justice against a pharmaceutical company that is responsible for pulling a “lifesaving” drug from the market just before his wife (Adria Arjona) dies from severe cancer. As he searches for vengeance and truth, it makes Ray encounter deadly enemies; inadvertantly, this puts his daughter, Rachel (Isabela Merced), in harm’s way. Now, he must find a way to protect the family he has left before the hunter becomes hunted.
‘Big Pharma’ is the main villain of the film, with an unknown host who Ray is trying to find to learn the truth of his loss. Well…that is what it’s trying to do. It starts with a couple of sequences that urge the audience to connect with the character just by spending a couple of minutes dealing with grief. However, a couple of minutes later, it turns into an action frenzy, with fighting everywhere. You wish it would settle down so it can develop its initial idea of public health, but it never does. The main focus is bustling, while the story is in the background rotting.
Momoa adds more depth this time around, but not enough to save the film. Photo Cr. Clay Enos/Netflix © 2021
Like most of Netflix’s action-thrillers, action set pieces are nothing more than bland and unoriginal. They lack tension, most of them being unimportant to the narrative as they add nothing to the story. It feels like it was born a thriller, but they were forced to add the action onto it. A fight sequence in a train—like the one we saw last week in “Beckett”—one in a tunnel, and a few others in open space like apartments, offices, etc.
Jason Momoa gets a chance here to show he can do much more than just be the witty tough guy. In some moments in the film, he does show some growth in his acting chops; however, it is generally the same tough guy,” albeit with more emotions. In the first act, we care for the character as he’s grieving and urging us to know the truth. After that, it is just him running, shooting, and fighting—nothing new. Everything you see here you have seen before in other Netflix original titles and done way better. Each time this happens, it gets even more and more tiresome.
I know not all products the platform delivers will be of the same quality; but it is time that they learn that most of their original films are very poor. They greenlit every idea imaginable, no matter good or bad, and most of the time end up being very lousy. And let’s not talk about the plot twist that comes out of nowhere. If you didn’t lose your patience in the middle act, that twist will cut it in whole. “Sweet Girl” wants to tackle healthcare issues and accessibility, but it gets lost in whatever they are trying to do. If there was more to say about this, I would, but it is too generic, boring, and shoddy that you can’t be bothered with it.
