Lila and Eve movie review

The premise is that when the police show little interest in a drive-by shooting in which a young man is killed, it’s left to the mother to track down those responsible and dish out her sense of justice. It’s similar to Charles Bronson’s Death Wish theme, but with a female twist.

This is a Lifetime Films production , which means the Christian message is put across loudly and clearly – and if one can avoid some of the sermonising inherent in Charles Stone III’s production one can attest that Lila and Eve has its moments.

The film hinges on Viola Davis’s action-driven character Lila, whose oldest son, 18-year-old Stephon (Aml Ameen), dies in a drive-by shooting. Jennifer Lopez, never a great actress in my books, adds support as Eve, who comes across as a very mysterious individual who purports to have lost a child to a gangland murder.

She meets Lila at a “Mothers of Young Angels” support group and the two strike up a relationship. Eve’s appearance can be viewed on different spiritual and psychological levels, but in the end it’s left to the viewer to draw their own conclusion about this thinly-drawn character. There is no need to evaluate her true motivation here – except to goad Lila on a path of death and destruction.

Relying on a series of flashbacks, Lila and Eve rubs in the sentimentality to such a degree that when judgment day arrives the audience is rooting for the underdog. We certainly feel her pain and want justice done. One can also argue the case about Stephon’s murder and question whether he was an innocent bystander or somehow mixed up in the drug trade.

The cops in question, played by Shea Whigham and The Wire’s Andre Royo, as well as the string of bad guys whom they encounter along the way, are boring, stereotypical creations. However, in this context the two title characters are not merely empowered-female roles, but are seen as genuine role models.

If taking the law into one’s own hands is the morality code that this film subscribes to then in reality it’s no better than the protagonists it portrays.