Imagine a feminist spin on “Taken,” this time with a mother in the driver’s seat. “Protector,” directed by Adrian Grunberg, doesn’t have the finesse of that Liam Neeson movie, but it does have Milla Jovovich, who breathes life into this brooding, occasionally stiff revenge thriller.
When 16-year-old Chloe (Isabel Myers) is drugged and kidnapped by a sex trafficking syndicate on what seems like the only day her helicopter mom, Nikki (Jovovich), lets her guard down, Nikki’s wrath is unleashed.
She’s an army veteran, so she makes easy work of dozens of henchman in grisly face-offs that display her ingenuity (one fight involves a skateboard) — as well as the toll of her perseverance. The chances of finding an abducted person plummet after 72 hours, she explains, justifying her spree’s growing frenzy. Her methods put a shady police chief (D. B. Sweeney) on high alert, who sends in his shooters to hold her accountable for the mounting corpses. Nikki’s former chief in the military (Matthew Modine), a much more reasonable guy, knows that won’t work.
While the final twist adds some depth to its madcap revenge plot, it’s Jovovich who keeps the film’s moodiness from unintentionally playing for laughs.
If the film celebrates Nikki’s strength and swagger, it also tells a story about how grief and vengeance can warp reality itself, therefore alienating even its most righteous warriors. Long one of our finest action stars, the former “Resident Evil” actress moves with the slickness of a ninja but carries herself with the teeth-gnashing bravado of an earthier, more emotional, sort of brawler. Throughout the film, Nikki works through her maternal guilt in somber voice-over — she just happens to be knocking out baddies and releasing caged prisoners while she does it.
Protector Rated R for bloody combat, abduction and the suggestion of sexual violence. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.
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