Mother knows best.
Lila (Viola Davis) is a single mother living in Atlanta with her two boys. One of whom, is tragically killed in what seems to be a random hit-and-run. Lila doesn’t know how to handle this sort of grief, so she just sits in her bedroom all day and night, sobbing, and trying to figure out just where her son’s case is going to end up next. Though the police promise Lila that there are being some moves made in finding out who killed her son, she’s still skeptical. However, where Lila gets the most comfort in is going to weekly meetings she has with mothers who have also had to deal with their own children being taken away from them too soon. There, Lila meets Eve (Jennifer Lopez), a fellow woman whose daughter died recently and doesn’t seem too intent on speaking to anyone – except for Lila that is. Eventually, the two strike up something of a relationship that finds themselves having fun together and making the best of their incredibly crappy situations. On one fateful night though, when Lila and Eve are around the house, they stumble upon a gun, which leads them to think of what they should do with it. Store it for later? Or take it out and get some full-fledged revenge, baby?
Sadly, Lila & Eve decides to go with the latter, which isn’t even getting to the root of the movie’s problems. However, while we’re talking about it, we might as well discuss the stance this movie takes on vigilante violence/revenge; while it doesn’t seem to necessarily telling you to step out on the streets now and look to blow some peeps up because they pissed you off in some way, the movie isn’t really taking all of the negative after-effects that can happen, too. For instance, Lila hardly ever takes into account that the people she may be killing, aren’t just somebody else’s sons, just like her late one, but also somebody else’s brother, or nephew, or whatever. Either way, the people that they kill are all somebody’s loved ones, which wouldn’t have been so put-upon, had Lila and Eve not gone to one of their funerals.
It’s actually quite morbid really, and it made me wonder just where the hell this movie’s heart actually was. With the heart and the humanity? Or with the thrill of seeing some criminals get shot in total and complete cold blood? It’s more of the latter in this movie’s case, however, it does so often make an attempt at being a lot deeper and heartfelt than it actually is – a stumbling mistake that they should have given up with right away.
But don’t worry, it gets worse because the movie then throws a bunch of twists and turns at the fences by the end, just to make sure that they’ve shaken things up anyway that it can. Problem is, the twists are so very obvious and feel as if they’re hitting Nicholas Sparks material. The twists don’t add much to the story, nor the point it’s trying to make about moving on in life and depressing, but the way the ones behind this see it, that’s all fine.
It isn’t and it’s a shame.
In fact, a damn shame because, yes, Viola Davis is actually in the leading role as Lila. And you know what? Believe it or not, Viola Davis is actually pretty good here! Surprising right? No. But what is surprising is that she even decided to bother with crap of this magnitude.
As Lila, Davis tries to dig as deep and as far as she can to reach the inner-core of this character, make us feel her pain and understand exactly what it is that she’s going through. At some points, it does work, which is probably only because she seems to be trying, but the script lets her and her talents down a little too much. Though you’d believe Davis as something of a bad-ass killer, the later-half of this movie that portrays her as being as such, doesn’t quite register. None of that has to do with Davis, though – her character is just written in such a way that she’s supposed to be as generic as humanly possible. Davis may try to shake things up every so often, but sadly, it doesn’t always work.
Same goes for Jennifer Lopez, who, I’m afraid to say, isn’t really that good here. Sure, you can definitely blame that on the crappy writing and even more crappy character she has to play with, but there’s also a weird feeling surrounding the way she portrays this character. She’s supposed to be trashy with her slang and general love of cigarettes? But it’s really hard to buy, or take seriously because it’s, well, hello, Jennifer freakin’ Lopez.
Girl hasn’t missed a booty work-out a day in her life, how the hell is she supposed to look like some low-level, dirty and beaten-up call girl?
If anything during the viewing of Lila & Eve to worth remembering at all, is that this is the second time Lopez and Davis are together in a movie since Out of Sight. Not only is that movie great in and of itself, but it also offers up Lopez’s best performance to-date. Davis is in it for only a short while, but trust me, her presence is felt throughout. So basically, what I’m saying is that, above everything else, just watch Out of Sight and keep it like that.
Consensus: Though Davis clearly seems to be trying her hardest, Lila & Eve turns into a joke of a movie that can only be associated with Lifetime.
3 / 10
Photos Courtesy of: Indiewire
Dan the Man's Movie Reviews 
Don’t feel bad saying Jennifer Lopez isn’t good here. Is she ever? This sounds all sorts of awful. It’s a shame Davis and Wigham are in it. They deserve better.
Agreed about the merits of out of sight!
I’m not surprised that Jennifer Lopez isn’t good in this film, but I wanted to see it because of Viola Davis. I might still watch it, but I’ll go in with low expectations.
Nice review.
I watched this recently and actually quite enjoyed watching it. I do think that during the first murder they say that it’s somebody’s son. You are right about the twists, the biggest one was made very obvious early on, which is a shame as it could have been a lot more subtle.