3 Short Paragraphs: Ava

 2020, Tate Taylor (The Help) - download

I am beginning to watch movies around their edges, as I continue to find myself sitting in front of the more digestible choices these days. Given that I am gravitating towards easy plots, I can let my gaze wander to the edges, the character choices, the settings, the off-scenes. For some, it's just second line choices, or maybe set dressing, or setting. But for others, they are deliberate plot choices, just not the A Plot.

Ava is another Women with Guns movie, another assassin for a shady organization not likely directly connected to a government. She's (Jessica Chastain, The Martian) begun questioning why she is doing these jobs -- literally -- taking the time to ask her victims if they feel they deserve what is about to happen. Her handler (John Malkovich, Bird Box) gently tells her she needs to stop, before their agency takes affront with her less than manageable behaviour and "retires" her. Meanwhile, the current boss (Colin Farrell, The Lobster) has her being watched, and despite the handler's assurances, has ordered her death.

That's the A Plot. But the movie was more about Ava taking a break, returning to her home in Boston and confronting the family she ran away from ages ago. We often see assassins as lacking any family, no connections to be exploited, nobody who can be used against them. But Ava has familial hangups, a boyfriend she abandoned without word, a mother she resents because she sided with the father, against Ava, and a sister who just resents Ava got away. This, while an obvious keenly chosen B Plot, was what I liked the most. Sure, Ava may still be deadly as ever, especially when she interferes with ex BF's gambling problems, but she is also the very fucked up product of a shitty family background that could be anyone.