Review of Won't Back Down (2012) by Seleti T — 08 Oct 2012

The movie was kind of strange for me because I didn't completely love the main character, Jamie, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. And I always feel strange about a movie when that happens. I thought she was completely believable as a desperate and driven mother, but there could have been a few more peeks into the vulnerable side of Jamie to make the audience feel a little bit more for her and understand her better and feel like we could be a part of her life. I always wonder if the director made the main character like that on purpose because there are definitely trillions of different types of people in the world, and maybe this character was just one type of person that the director wanted to portray. Either way, I just couldn't completely empathize with the main character, and so it left me with an unsatisfied feeling about the movie because I couldn't celebrate at the battle won as much as I wanted to by the end of the movie. I definitely could sympathize with the cause she was fighting for and everything going on in her life, but her as a person, I just couldn't completely feel or figure out where she was coming from. Her boisterous demeanor seemed a bit off or unbelievable for some reason as if it was a defense mechanism rather than her honest personality, which also makes sense for her character. But if that was true, I wish there was more insight on that and a bit more development into the softer aspects of her, so that we could empathize with her harder parts rather than be put off by them. Possibly, the director wanted us to know Jamie the way other characters would know Jamie? rather than actually getting insight into her and getting to know her, which many films usually allow us to do and invite us into their lives to a greater degree than the other characters are allowed in.

I definitely enjoyed the story and how it is such a powerful one in today's society. I love Viola Davis for making us feel for her, and thus making us feel for her cause. Again, to be fair to the character of Jamie, Viola's character Nona is made to have us feel that way about her, but she does a great job at it, because it definitely worked on me. Still, a few of the scenes were a little too mushy gushy for me rather than powerfully and emotionally effective. I did like the end cut to black of the film after Jamie's daughter (SPOILER ALERT!) reads "hope" and looks at the screen like a lightbulb went off because I like that the director is using that moment and that little girl to turn the lightbulb on in our heads and leave us with that. Like that's all the director wanted to say. The director just wanted to look us in the eye and say, "Hope." Albeit cheesy, I liked that a lot.

Also, the moment when Jamie turns around to her daughter (another SPOILER ALERT!) and fiercely and with full belief tells her she is so, so smart and intelligent was a great moment. As expected, they had a few tear-jerker moments throughout the film. But this moment was great because at that moment, the daughter is able to forgive her mother and feel good again, which is an important message about how to talk to children and what respecting them can do.