New no.1 on Netflix has just 43% Rotten Tomatoes score – is it worth watching?

Jennifer Lopez has another chart-topper on her hands, but this time it’s for her latest movie rather than a hit single. Netflix original movie The Mother is no.1 on one of the best streaming services, but not everyone is such a fan. 

The movie follows J.Lo’s retired assassin as the titular “Mother” (we never learn her name) whose impressive CV of past careers also includes gun runner and special forces agent. It was during the smuggling days that she met and seduced (hopefully via song) the two antagonists of the movie Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal) and SAS agent gone bad Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes), eventually having a daughter, Zoe. 

Setting out on the straight and narrow, the mother is forced to give up her daughter and move to Alaska for a quiet lonely life. Twelve years later, with her daughter now in danger, she can no longer sit on the sidelines.

The Mother is Netflix’s biggest original movie launch of 2023 so far, with over 83 million hours watched in its opening weekend alone. So while undoubtedly a commercial success, the film has had a mixed reception. 

Directed by Nicki Caro, who also worked on several episodes of the excellent Daisy Jones & The Six on Prime Video, The Mother has not played well with critics. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it just one star, but others were more generous with Empire awarding the film three stars and praising Lopez’ performance as “on fine movie star form”.

A critic score of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes is not a great showing but audiences seemed to disagree with a 71% rating. Either they are die hard J.Lo fans (as we all should be) or the film is an enjoyable way to switch off and spend an evening relaxing. I think your enjoyment of this film will depend on what you’re looking for. This is not a film to remember come awards season, but if you’re already a Netflix subscriber, you could do a lot worse.