Director: Brian Andrew Mendoza

Written by: Philip Eisner & Gregg Hurwitz

Starring: Jason Momoa, Isabela Merced, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Raza Jaffrey, Justin Bartha, Lex Scott Davis, Michael Raymond-James and Amy Brenneman

Rating: ★★

Sweet Girl starts with one of the most overused clichés of action films. It starts towards the end of the story, shows an over-the-top situation, this time Momoa on the roof of a stadium running and jumping into the water, and then switches back to the past. For the majority of the film, we are then waiting to get back to this spot. You know nothing can happen to the main character, because we must get back to that spot. With Sweet Girl when we get back there, we are met with a twist. A twist that works well and answers some of the questions raised by earlier moments in the film, but it can’t follow this up with a great ending. Instead, It’s more clichés and a long dragged out finale.

Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) is completely believable as an action star, but his character isn’t. He first shows his fighting skills on a train after a reporter is assassinated, and you’re left wondering where he learnt to fight of an assassin. He’s clearly got anger issues, threatening to kill the head of the pharmaceutical company that pulled the drug that could save his wife’s life, on live TV.

Momoa plays Ray Cooper, who’s only defining character trait is that he has a daughter and his wife has died of cancer. Six months after his wife dies, Ray receives a phone call from a reporter asking to meet. Once the reporter is murdered, the film skips another two years into the future where Momoa sets out to solve the mystery behind the pharmaceutical company. After fulfilling his promise and killing the CEO, he sets off on the run with his daughter, Rachel played by Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold).

Both Momoa and Merced give a fine performance with the script they are given, but nothing spectacular. The real downfall is the pacing. It’s such a long and drawn out film that it becomes boring very quickly. The action isn’t that entertaining. There’s a chase sequence, just before we reach the opening scene again, and it’s so dull. The only exciting bit is the twist, which is revealed nicely and makes you sit up and pay attention. There’s even a little bit of you that’ll want to go back and re-watch the film to see the clues leading to it, but you won’t because it’s just so incredibly dull that no one will want to sit through it twice.

The assassin that is hunting down Momoa and Merced from the train sequence throughout the film, must be the worst assassin in cinematic history. He constantly lets the main characters escape and after having a conversation with them in a diner, tells them who hired him. He’s an awful character that’s dreadfully written.

Sweet Girl is not a good film. The actors are decent, the twist is great, but everything else is just bad. It’s a waste of time and is only good if you’re suffering from insomnia because by the end of the almost two hour run time, you will be asleep.